


A Graceful Life

by samsg1



Category: Stargate - All Media Types, Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Universe
Genre: Ancient Technology, Atlantis, Episode: s02e13 Alliances, Episode: s02e21 1969, Episode: s07e13 Grace, Established Relationship, F/M, Fictober 2020, Fluff, Post-Season/Series 10 Finale, Prompt Fic, Space Battles, Stargate: Continuum, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Tumblr Prompt, time paradox
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:41:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26989201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samsg1/pseuds/samsg1
Summary: Previously titled ‘I Missed This’This S/J story starts with them newly-reunited during Ba'al's extraction ceremony in Continuum (after the timeline has been righted), and follows their lives together moving from super fluff, to a space battle, Ancient technology, heaps of science and a double time paradox.Written for Fictober 2020 prompts:Day 13: "I missed this"Day 16: "I never wanted anything else"Day 18/21: “You don’t see it?” & “This, this makes it all worth it”Day 23/24: “Do we have to?” & “Are you kidding me?”Day 27/31: "Give me that" & “I trust you”
Relationships: Samantha "Sam" Carter/Jack O'Neill
Comments: 62
Kudos: 117





	1. I Missed This

**Author's Note:**

> This story was originally planned as a simple two-part fluffy story, but ended up taking a huge tangent and became so much more!

**2009**

Jack had never been so unimaginably bored. And as a man who had spent more than eight years waiting around bored as hell on multitudes of planets waiting for his teammates to complete their soil sampling, ruin documenting, technogadget-tinkering or what-have-yous, being unimaginably bored right now was _really_ saying something. He would even go so far as to welcome a mind-numbingly dull meeting in Washington with a bunch of bureaucrats all with their heads up their asses.

And as he whispered that exact last thought word-for-word into the woman beside him’s ear, the sound of her giggle and the sight of her great effort to keep a straight face out of respect for the Tok’ra’s ceremony lit up his weary soul. God he’d missed her so much. 

“Speaking of bureaucrats’ asses, _Jack_...,” she whispered flirtatiously, and he was surprised to feel her stealthily reach down to his buttocks pinching a cheek. He might have been sitting behind a desk for the past three years, and put on a little weight, but yeah, he liked to think he still had it. Well he certainly did with his wife, at least.

“Hey!” he protested in jest, batting away her arm playfully, earning himself a scornful look from Daniel, who returned his attention immediately to the crooning Tok’ra.

Deciding to go in for a tease, he leaned back in subtly to whisper into Sam’s ear again, “Call me a bureaucrat ever again, _Colonel_ , and this particular ass is out of bounds for good!”

He readied a grin in anticipation of her retaliating fake pout- the one he’d come to know and love ever since their early days together on SG-1 of harmless flirting and banter- but to his surprise, there was an unexpected pause in her eyes. And as he turned to look at her- _really_ study her face now for the first time since she’d come back from Atlantis- he noticed that she looked _tired_. They hadn’t had a moment alone together yet as he’d missed her return from Atlantis while he’d been accompanying SG-3 with Ba’al’s restraint before coming straight here to the Tok'ra homeworld. Probably a good thing he hadn’t been in the Gate Room anyway, he wasn’t sure whether he’d have been able to restrain himself from physically hurting Woolsey for stealing Sam’s prize job, or sweeping his wife up in his arms as soon as she’d stepped through the event horizon and kissing her. The image of both scenarios- along with imagining Woolsey’s reaction to either- made him release the grin he’d been holding.

He saw her eyes flicker to his mouth and then there it was: a flash of that mega-watt smile he loved so much broke out, softening his unease momentarily, but as he continued to gaze upon her l face he saw that she looked paler than usual. Her features seemed thinner, and while he seemed to gain a pound per month spent in Washington it looked like she’d lost a pound or two since he’d last seen her. 

He wanted to ask her how she was, but while he’d been lost in his thoughts of concern she’d already returned her expression back to neutral and was re-focused on the Tok’ra; Daniel occasionally sending scathing looks towards him from the corner of his eyes.

 _”Don’t screw this up Jack. I needn’t remind you that since losing Jacob our ties with the Tok’ra have been strained at best. We’re lucky that they even invited us at all, despite your history with Ba’al”_ he’d said. 

Honestly though, to him, the Goa’uld were wiped out, and now Ba’al was about to be gone. War won, mission accomplished, job done. As far as he was concerned he could live without ever having anything to do with the Tok’ra ever again, but knowing the Tok’ra still meant a lot to Sam, he decided he’d keep up the professional act for her benefit, and maybe Earth's too, he supposed. So filing away those nagging thoughts for later, he decided to force himself to re-focus on the longest, most-boring-performance-in-the-galaxy ever.

\-----

The minutes dredged on and on and he could feel his eyes glassing over, ears no longer bothering to pick out any intelligible words from the droning voices anymore. He barely had the energy or patience to hide the several yawns that were escaping, each time expecting Sam to nudge him in punishment in the side, but she never did. In fact, to his surprise, he noticed that Sam, too, seemed what one might call 'fidgety' next to him. Thinking back over the past ten years he couldn't think of a single instance where he might have described her as fidgety. He'd never met such a professional in his entire career in the Air Force- she was always Soldier Sam, through and through. She'd never even let down her guard on team nights, either, always manintaining a professional distance from him, her CO. Not even beer could even get her to let her hair down as the naquadah in her blood prevented her from getting tipsy. It wasn't until she'd transferred to Area 51 three years ago to escape their chain-of-command that she'd finally lowered her guard and let him in, and he'd promptly made her his wife.

Smiling at the memory, his happy trip down memory lane was interrupted by the sound of a sigh as he saw her shift her weight again for the umpteenth time, looking noticeably uncomfortable. Sure they’d been standing for over two hours now, but past experience told him that she could keep form better. Mitchell was doing a good job of being professional, though maybe he was putting on his best act in front of himself. Teal'c was of course solid and stoic as ever, and Vala was, well, he'd heard enough to expect very little from her. But Sam? Maybe being out of the field for a year heading Atlantis had caused her to lose some stamina? He knew he certainly had since being promoted off SG-1, he wasn’t even sure if he was even physically qualified to go off-world anymore, but at least he was so high up that no one seemed to question these things anymore. He had become "The Man", after all.

Speaking of being fidgety, out of the corner of his eye he saw that Vala was now tugging at Daniel’s arm like a bored child, much to Daniel's annoyance. He couldn't help but smile, thinking that he and Vala might get along if he spent some time with her. They did seem to have some things in common- annoying Dannyboy being one of them. He was glad to see someone on the team had taken up his mantle of tormenting the man.

Seizing the chance while Daniel was sufficiently distracted, he tried to engage Sam in whispered conversation again.

“Sam, everything okay?” he asked gently.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Hah! As if he hadn’t heard that a gazillion times over the years. She could have been shot in the shoulder and she’d still say ‘I’m fine.’ “Just tired. Gate lag, I guess,” she added at his disbelieving eyebrow raise. He nodded, giving her the opportunity to continue if she wished, which she did, “and if I’m honest, I’m pretty pissed Woolsey’s taking my job.”

There it was. He’d known there was something.

“I’m so sorry. I swear I fought them hard on it. I know what that position meant to you. There’s no question that you are the best choice for leader for Atlantis.”

“Thank you,” she said kindly, “and I know you would have fought them on it.”

“Damn straight I did-”

“But don’t be sorry, at least I’ll be back on Earth again. With you.”

“There’s that,” he said, unable to suppress a schoolboy-like grin. “I’m definitely not sorry about that.”

It seemed that Daniel had tamed Vala for the time being, as he was back to throwing another of his ‘you should be paying attention to the ceremony’ glowering looks, so he ended the conversation and discreetly slid his hand into Sam's, trying to push aside the niggling feeling that there was still something she wasn't telling him. But there'd be plenty of time later to catch up now that she would be back on Earth for good, assuming of course that he didn't drop dead of old age before this damn ceremony was over.

Returning his eyes to the ceremony, he gently voiced, “I missed this,” feeling her give his hand a gentle squeeze in return, indicating that she’d heard him. And as the Tok'ra continued their warbling, the two silently continued their communication through the contact of their entwined fingers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TBC for Day 16 of the Fictober 2020 prompts!


	2. I Never Wanted Anything Else

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fictober 2020 Day 16: “I never wanted anything else”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N After posting this I re-read the end of the Continuum transcript and realised that Vala stayed behind on the Tok'ra homeworld to help the host, and Jack offers to buy lunch for everyone. Sorry for that huge error! The rest of this story is intended to be canon-compliant though. Hope it doesn't affect your reading.

**Sam’s POV**

“Behold! The last of the System Lords!”

The scene of Ba’al being finally extracted from his host had been brief, but grotesque. She’d felt nauseous at the sight of the snake, it had been a long time since she’d seen a live symbiote and it had brought up bad memories from Jolinar. Jack, too, she noticed had been particularly tense. He’d been playing up his bravado but she knew that facing Ba’al again after what he’d done to him- even when for him it had been five years ago- would still be hard.

She’d never told Jack, but she knew exactly what torture had been inflicted upon him. She would take that particular secret with her to the grave, but Fifth had used those exact memories against her when he’d taken her three years prior. She could remember the feel of him being skewered like a pig, the heat of his skin searing, the smell of his burning flesh; all senses overwhelmed at once causing a a second wave of nausea to hit. Squeezing Jack’s hand for support, she felt him return it, both probably needing the mutual support as much as each other.

Then at last, Ba’al had finally got what was coming to him. Well, other than that punch she’d laid into him when they’d been looking for the sangraal. That had certainly been satisfying, and well worth the blackened knuckles later. Of course she’d done it out of her own irritation, but mostly she’d done it for Jack. When she’d recounted the story to him on her next visit to Washington he’d declared that she was finally ready for a big command because she’d finally learned ‘to stop taking shit from anyone’, after which he’d promptly cut off her giggling by pulling her to him, telling her how much he loved her, and had kissed her practically senseless in a surge of pride and gratitude.

The recollection made her wonder if he’d known that leading the Atlantis expedition had been on the cards at that time. Had he been building her confidence for it? She felt overwhelmed with appreciation and love for the selfless man beside her who had always, _always_ put her feelings, her career, and her well-being before his own. The rush of devotion to him, and the scene before her was starting to make her heart pound, her vision swirl, her head feel light, and suddenly the planet’s dry heat was getting too much. She desperately wanted to sit down and cool off and process the events of the day. She hadn’t even had a chance to freshen up following the trip from Atlantis- stopping at Midway only briefly before receiving the shocking news from Woolsey, she’d then headed straight to the locker room to gear up and change into her desert camos to gate here- the Tok’ra’s message had been so urgent. Taking in a deep breath she willed her body to cooperate for just a little longer…

\----

Back at the SGC they were all walking along the familiar Level 21 corridor heading for their standard post-mission medical examination. Sam wished she’d been given the opportunity to shower first; she was dying to wash away all the sand and sweat, as well as the tiredness that had accumulated over the past day. Her fellow friends were all equally grumbly and moany, staggering along the corridor, sand and dust raining down across the floor, falling impossibly from their every nook and cranny. 

“I swear that was the longest three hours of my life,” she heard Vala moan from up ahead. 

“I think I have sand stuck in my ears,” Jack added from beside her, waggling his finger in his ear emphatically.

“You guys buy what Ba’al said about the plans from another clone?” asked Cam.“I was worried he was gonna make us disappear, or something.”

“Disappear?” asked Daniel, looking baffled.

“Or something,” Cam repeated, shrugging.

“I have had the pleasure of observing several Goa’uld moments from their death over my years of servitude as First Prime to Apophis, and also since joining the Tau’ri,” Teal’c said with an unrestrained air of smugness. “A Goa’uld will often say anything to appear more powerful even when he is at his weakest.”

“Yeah, well, personally I appreciated the fake gloating,” Vala added casually, making everyone stop, giving her puzzled looks. “What? I felt it rather added something to what would have been a rather otherwise anti-climactic ending.” 

“You call Ba’al being forcibly removed from his two-thousand year old host and then executed 'anti-climactic'?” questioned Daniel incredulously.

“Yeah, well, as I said before, been there, done that,” she replied casually, breaking into a skip towards the infirmary, the rest of her team looking on in amusement. “Anyway, I don’t know about you lot but I’m starving!” she called back. “Let’s get all the prodding and poking done with so we can have lunch together in the mess. Or is it dinner already?”

“I like your thinking!” Jack shouted after her. Then turning back to Sam, he added musingly, “You know, I quite like that Vala.”

The thought of food, however, was making Sam feel unwell again. The new wave of nausea caused her to fall back in step from her friends, and Jack, noticing, hung back with her.

“Carter?”

Back on base, back to formalities, of course.

“I dunno, as I said it’s just gate lag, I guess. And the whole ceremony was tiring. Not to mention, no matter what Vala says, that ending wasn’t exactly pretty.”

“No it wasn’t”, he said darkly. “Anyway, I know what’ll make you feel better, after Lam finishes with us let’s just skip dinner and go back to my quarters and we make up for the last eight weeks we haven’t seen each other.”

“What? On base?!” she asked, blushing at the thought.

“Motel?”

She pouted and raised her eyebrows in protest.

“Okay, okay, I’m sure a General’s budget can afford something a little more classy.”

“That’s better.” The urge to link hands with him was overwhelming but she would have to control herself a little longer before they could be alone together. “Can’t believe neither of us has a home in Colorado Springs anymore…”

“Well, let’s not dwell.”

She smiled, remembering that time sitting at the dock when he’d last said those words. The few days they’d spent alone at the cabin before Daniel and Teal’c had shown up had probably been the best days of her life; with her transferred to Area 51’s payroll she’d moved out of his chain-of-command and they had wasted no time entering a romantic relationship.

She watched as a smile played on his face, too. “Reminiscing, too?”

“Oh you know me, I’m a sentimental man.”

“Can’t wait til we’re alone together,” she whispered, out of reach of the surrounding Airmen’s ears.

“Well that’s decided then, after the check-up let’s bail on everyone.”

“Yes, Sir!”

\-----------

Waiting at the fancy hotel lobby for Jack to finish checking them in, a vibrating from her purse pocket drew her attention away from the General’s behind. Flipping open her phone, she lifted it to her ear.

“Carter.”

“Colonel Carter, this is Dr Lam. Your initial blood workup was clean but after noticing something I ran your blood work through again and-”

“Yes, I know what you’re going to say, Doctor,” cutting her off. “I’m sorry I didn’t bring it up at the time, but I’ll be on base tomorrow. We can talk about it then,” she said authoritatively, hoping the Doctor would understand to keep it to herself for now.

“Ah, I see. Err, yes, Colonel, of course. Okay then, see you tomorrow. Good night.”

“Good night,” she replied, closing her flip phone just in time to see Jack coming back jangling the room keys, looking amused.

“Get caught sneaking off did we? Was it Daniel?” he chuckled.

“Haha, yes,” she lied, “they said to have a good night.”

“Yeahsureyoubetcha we will,” he said with a wink, pressing a kiss to her cheek and picking up her suitcase before directing her to the elevator.

“You know, you don’t have to be a gentleman with me, but I do appreciate it anyway.”

“Well, you should know that chivalry comes naturally with men of a certain age.”

She chuckled. She'd noticed recently that Jack had been making references to the fact that he was old, but he really behaved like such a child inside. The man would never age in her eyes.

“Speaking of age,” she began as the doors to the empty elevator closed, “you know John totally saw through your impromptu visit on the basis of a surprise inspection of Atlantis’ departments and personnel.”

“What? Nah, that was totally believable. The whole point of a surprise inspection is that the timing is… a surprise.”

“And when said timing happens to be on my birthday, of all days? Not exactly subtle, Jack.”

“Well, what can I say?” he said with a grin. “Forty is a big deal!”

“It was, and thank you for all the strings you had to pull, and all the hoops you no doubt had to jump through.”

“Anything for you, Sam.”

He began to lean in for a kiss but the elevator doors opened, interrupting them. Checking no one was there waiting, she leant up to give him a quick peck on the lips before they walked in silence tracking down their room number. She suddenly began to feel nervous as they reached their hotel door.

As the door lock clicked shut behind them, not even taking the time to scope our their room, she took the bags from his hands and placed them down before placing her own hands in his. They were finally alone together, and they needed to talk. Making sure his eyes were meeting hers she started:

“You know, that time on Atlantis, you gave me the best birthday present I’ve ever had,” she purred, trying to hide the hammering of her heart. 

“My face is the best birthday present you’ve ever had?” he quipped with that childish look she’d come to love over the years. He really wasn't picking up on the fact that this was a serious conversation.

“No, not that, although that was nice to see, of course.”

“What then, my dick?” 

“No!” she laughed, punching him playfully. Oh boy, he was not going to see this coming, she thought, as with her own shaking hands, she took both of his and purposefully placed them both gently on her lower stomach.

“This.”

The man froze, stunned, and then she watched as realization and understanding and a whole ethos of emotion played across his face.

“What? Wait, how, what? Ahhhh,” he spluttered. She watched on, unable to suppress her eyes from welling up at the sight of the love of her life looking so unrestrainedly happy. She'd never, in eleven years of knowing him, seen him with such an expression of pure _joy_. Clearly unable to voice any words, he simply scooped her up in his arms and held her in a long, tight embrace. 

Sam enjoyed the moment, allowing happy tears to roll down her face, enjoying the feel and scent of him-the father of her baby- before he finally regained his voice.

“A baby! Oh my god Sam, I can’t believe this. How far along are you?”

“You have to ask how long ago my birthday was?” she asked, pulling back from the hug.

“Oh- right. Sorry, my brain’s a bit, you know, right now. Errr, that was a little over two months ago, wasn’t it? But how could you have been ovulating? All women off-world are required to be on contraception, how did this even happen?”

“All female _field_ officers are required, Jack, but I spend all my time in Atlantis, and when my depo shot expired I just told Keller that I didn’t want to renew for personal reasons and she didn’t question me.”

“Ah, the perks of being the boss.”

“Yup, one of many.”

“Including inventing excuses to see my wife in another galaxy,” he said, pulling her in for another squeeze.

“There’s definitely that. And also commandeering a puddle jumper for a date with your wife on the mainland.”

“Hey, you were merely giving a visiting senior staff member a tour of the new planet Atlantis was stationed on, and it just so happened that I have the ability to pilot the jumper and act as chauffeur myself.”

“Yeah, Shepherd saw straight through that stunt too. Asked how our date went when we got back.”

“I bet he did,” he answered with a chuckle, nuzzling into her neck and planting a soft kiss before pulling back to look at her.

He was gazing into Sam’s eyes with such pure happiness, but she couldn’t let go of the feeling of guilt that this wasn’t something they’d planned together.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you that I wasn’t on contraception, Jack. I know we haven’t talked about having babies so much since we didn’t even know if I could conceive at all after everything that’s happened to me...”

“What? No way, Sam, don’t you feel bad for one second. You have no idea how happy I am right now! And you want this, right?”

“The baby? Yes of course I do! You?”

“Hell yes,” he said, giving her a tender, reassuring kiss. “But Sam, you know I said I never wanted anything else but you. I never even dared to hope that we would have the chance at having children; you would always have been enough for me. You alone’d always be me having my cake and eating it."

“And a baby?”

“That’s gonna be the cherry on our cake,” he replied, stroking her stomach fondly.

“What is it with you and cakes?” she asked, giggling.

“What is it with you and quarks?” he teased with a twinkle in his eye.

“Touché,” she replied. “And speaking of cake, I think I can stomach eating something now. Room service?”

“Woo-hoo!” he exclaimed in his best Homer voice, practically diving for the bedside phone.

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bet you all totally saw that coming XD Bit of a worn out storyline, you've probably read a hundred fics with the exact same story... I hope I managed to contribute something original to the fandom!
> 
> Oh, and I'm not sure how old Sam is after Atlantis. For the purpose of this story she's forty, but she was probably older than that.
> 
> Anyway, this two-chapter story has grown, and you're in for two more chapters to come! Sorry, not sorry!


	3. This, this makes it all worth it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Following Sam's pregnancy reveal, she and Jack talk in their hotel room. FLUFF WARNING!
> 
> Fictober 2020 prompts used:  
> Day 18: "Can’t you see it?"  
> Day 21: “This, this makes it all worth it”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N Posting for Day 18 but you'll also find Day 21's prompt as I couldn't seem to separate the chapters.
> 
> I apologize in advance for any vomiting induced by the incoming fluff in this chapter! :D

A tray of empty dishes now lay discarded on the floor beside the bed, which was now occupied by the two lovers, wrapped in each other’s arms.

Sam smiled at the sensation of Jack absently running his fingers along her arm, leaving a line of hairs standing on end.

“You feeling okay?” he asked tenderly.

“Not too nauseous, if that’s what you mean. And okay? Jack, I’ve never been better! Being with you, back on Earth, having a baby together, this is just perfect.”

“It really is,” he concurred, his fingers now stroking her back fondly. “So when did you find out you were pregnant?”

“About three weeks ago when I started to feel unwell. It’s not like I get regular checks now I’m not frontline anymore.”

“Three weeks? You must have been dying to tell me!”

“Actually, strange as it may sound, I didn’t really have a chance to think about it at all until yesterday when I found out I would be visiting Earth. I was just so focused on everything going on that it didn’t really sink in.”

“You, focused on work? Never!” he said, making a mock shocked face.

“Very funny,” she said, responding with a pout, “but you must have read our reports on Michael kidnapping Teyla, right? It’s been a crazy few weeks, even by Atlantis’ standards.”

“Fair enough. I’m glad Teyla’s baby was okay.”

“Me too. He’s absolutely beautiful. She’s gonna be so excited whenever she finds out I’m having a baby, too!” and she beamed at the brief image of her own child playing with baby Torren. “But now I have no idea when or even if I’ll ever be able to get back to Atlantis,” she said glumly. “It just happened so fast, I have a ton of paperwork and evaluations left unfinished, am I supposed to just leave it all for Woolsey? How is he going to know how to take over? I don’t even know if I’ll get a chance to say goodbye to everyone there and the city…” she said, feeling truly heartbroken at the thought of her colleagues, many of them she’d come to consider friends, finding out she wouldn’t be returning.

“Well you were pretty much thrown in at the deep end when you replaced Elizabeth, and you did fine. I’m sure Woolsey’ll manage somehow,” he countered. “But I promise I’ll make sure you get the chance to pack up your things yourself and say your goodbyes. I am The Man, after all.”

“Thank you,” she said, giving his torso a squeeze in immense gratitude. Being married to the Head of Homeworld Command certainly had its perks. “I swear if I don’t make it back and Woolsey ends up chucking any of my stuff from my, well, his office-”

“Not gonna happen,” he interrupted reassuredly.

“Good. Can’t believe Woolsey of all people is going to be leading Atlantis. What morons ever thought that idiot would be a good idea?”

“The same schmucks you’ll be having your year-end review with at the end of the week, so let’s try to keep the name calling to a minimum if you want to keep your ties with Atlantis. Or at least let’s keep the name calling between us,” he added with a conspiratorial wink.

“Definitely," she giggled. "But you know, now that it’s starting to sinki in that I’m really having a baby, settling in Washington with you is looking really tempting. Maybe I could be done with the Air Force…?”

“What? No way! Baby or not, we both agreed we’d never let our relationship affect our career decisions. You’re making stars someday, Sam.”

“Yeah I know, hence why we ended up in probably the longest-distance relationship in human history.”

“Pegasus was definitely far, but hopefully you won’t consider this time to be so long-distance in comparison. You find out officially at your review, but your next assignment is to oversee the production of the fifth Deadalus-class ship at Area 51." ’They’re sending me back to Groom Lake?’ she thought rather glumly. "We’ll be commissioning a sixth soon, too, and I know you’ll want to be a part of planning its design, if not in charge of the entire project.”

The scientist in her’s attention was certainly piqued by that, but her heart was screaming in protest at being away from Jack yet again.

“That does sound like fun but Nevada would still be too far from you,” she said dejectedly. "I was really hoping we could finally live together and actually be a proper family."

“Me too, Sam,” he said, sounding equally disappointed. “But I was thinking, maybe you won’t have to be there full time, maybe you can work half the week from Washington, and I’m sure Colonel Ellis would be happy to beam you back and forth if the Apollo’s in orbit. We’ll figure something out. And the President must still owe me from all those times we saved the planet. I still have my list, you know." She smiled, fondly remembering him bring up his ever-lengthening list of demands from the President for ever save they made of the planet. "And at least it’s an assignment where maternity leave can be taken easily.”

“There’s that,” she conceded.

"Well we don't have to decide anything right now, and it's been a long day. Let's just enjoy the moment."

She nodded her agreement, and a comfortable silence fell between them. Sam lay her head on Jack’s chest, listening to the rise and fall of his breath. The sound and steady rhythm reminded her of the waves cresting and crashing against the city that she'd found soothing each night on Atlantis. She truly hoped she'd get the chance to say goodbye to her friends, and of course the city itself. While the year she’d spent there had seemed long- she’d missed Jack and being on SG-1 terribly- it had also equally flown by. It occurred to her that she’d been so busy with all the work and adjustment that had come with being its leader, that she probably hadn’t stopped and savoured her time there enough. And now what was probably the best assignment she’d ever have in her career had been taken away from her without warning, before she’d even fully appreciated the gift that had been given to her.

Probably sensing her dejection, Jack interrupted her thoughts asking, “What’s wrong?”, and placed a kiss onto her head. She loved how open and sensitive he’d become at talking about each other’s feelings since they had gotten together. He’d probably always been intuitive of other’s feelings- you didn’t reach the rank of General by not being able to read people- but she loved that he’d finally lowered his defenses enough to not only talk about his own feelings, but to also shed his discomfort when asking about her feelings.

“Don’t get me wrong,” she answered, “I’m happy to be back on Earth, and definitely happy to be here snuggling with you," she said, nuzzling his chest, "but I’m gonna miss Atlantis. Actually, I already do miss her. She’s an incredible city.”

“She is. And you were an incredible leader. I was so proud to see you in command and having the respect of everyone there when I visited. You did an excellent job. Teal’c said the same thing, too, after his visit.”

“Thank you,” she said, smiling into the warmth of his torso.

“You were kind of the victim of your own success, though.”

“Oh?” Sam asked, lifting her head and meeting his eyes.

“Despite my protests, after a military leader like yourself was able to eliminate the threat of Michael and the Replicators-”

“I can hardly take credit for all that-,” she interrupted.

“Don’t be so modest Sam,” he cut her off. “You should know that as leader, that credit _does_ in fact automatically fall to you. But anyway, I'm afraid you kinda paved the way for the IOA to insert a civilian puppet to run Atlantis the way they want.”

“Ah.”

“Yeah,” he said, looking as glum at the thought as she felt.

“John’s gonna hate that.”

“Oh I’m sure there’ll be many who will, and there may be some fallout- maybe some people will quit, I dunno- but I can't complain, because now we have a little one on the way and you’re back on Earth safe and sound, for good.”

And he leaned forward to meet her lips with his own, holding her in a long, tight squeeze, as though he feared she’d disappear off to another galaxy again if he let go. Then she suddenly felt him stiffen, so she pulled back in concern to see that a pensive expression had come over his face.

“Penny for your thoughts?” she asked.

“I was just thinking how far we’ve come. How many bad guys in not just one, but several galaxies we’ve had to get through to get here. We’ve fought in three wars, Sam, how are we still even here?”

“I don't know. Either we're lucky, or it’s a miracle.”

“I thought I’d lost you so many times, Sam," he said with such melancholy in his eyes it made her heart ache to see. "How many times did we face death together? And every time I wanted to tell you how I felt, but I couldn’t. You know, I had the engagement ring I gave you for years but I never even dared to hope that I would even get the chance to use it, let alone live to marry you and become a dad again.” Placing his hands on her tummy, he added, “This,” caressing it tenderly, “this makes it all worth it.”

“Putting up with all the gloating snakeheads we met was worth it?” she asked teasingly, all the while enjoying the feel of him loving on their baby already.

“Hah, yes, of course that was worth it.”

“Putting up with all the bureaucrat bullshit at the Pentagon?”

“How’s that different than the snakeheads?”

he asked amusedly.

“Hah, good point," she chuckled. "Okay then," deciding this was a challenge. "Even Ba’al?”

After a pause, he surprised her by answering confidently, “I’d go through that all over again if it meant I could have this with you.”

“Wow,” was all she could say. He truly looked like he meant it. She couldn't believe how lucky to have this, to have him: a man who would genuinely be willing to die over and over again just to be with her. This man, who had already faced significant loss and pain in his life. She was just so grateful that he was willing to risk that loss again to take a chance and have a family with her. “I can’t help but think that if you hadn’t lost Charlie, you wouldn’t have any of this,” she said quietly, and seeing the pause in his eyes, she added, “Sorry for bringing up a difficult topic.”

“Sam, we’re married and we’re going to be parents together. I don’t want you to think that talking about Charlie is difficult.” Wow, he really has come so far from the dark and defensive Colonel I met all that time ago, she thought.

“I know, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. And Sam, you should know that I’m okay. It took years, but I’ve come to reconcile with the fact that if it weren’t for losing Charlie, I never would have joined the program, which, not to toot my own horn or anything, means that Earth would have been taken by the Goa’uld a long time ago. I like to think that makes him some kind of superhero.”

She was awash with emotion at the thought of how much he still loved Charlie after all these years. She couldn’t wait to see how much love he would shower their own baby with, too. “Definitely a superhero. Just like his Dad,” she added, grinning. “Have you thought of any names?”

“Jack Junior?”

“Absolutely not!” she protested, relieved at his humour after the still-difficult-for-her topic.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Anyway you’ve had three weeks, haven’t you thought of anything?”

“Actually, no. As I said, I genuinely didn’t have a chance to stop and think about the baby at all,” she said with a snort. “Does that make me a bad Mom?”

“No, it just means you work too much. Did I ever tell you that?”

“Maybe once or twice over the years,” she said teasingly. “Hey at least I followed your order to get a life.”

“That you did, and I’m glad you followed that particular order,” he said, planting a kiss on her lips.

“So, any names?” 

“Well, if it’s a boy I’ll leave that to you, I already used up my favourite name. But I always thought that if I ever had a daughter, I would want to name her after my grandmother on my father’s side. The one who left me the cabin. She died when I was quite young, but I have a ton of crazy, wacky summer memories with her. She had a wicked sense of humor. A really good, dry wit, you know?”

“I think I know too well,” she replied, wincing at the thought of another sarcastic O’Neill.

“Didn’t take shit from anyone,” he continued on, clearly pretending he hadn’t heard her comment. “She was a very strong woman and I guess I took a lot after her.”

“What was her name?”

“Grace.”

The name hit her like a ton of bricks. It had been years since she’d heard that name. That girl she’d seen, no imagined, on the Prometheus? There was no way.

“G-grace?!” she spluttered, dumbfounded.

“Yeah, you don’t like it?” he asked, looking puzzled by her strange reaction to his suggestion.

“No, no, it’s a beautiful name.” ‘Has to be a coincidence,’ she thought. Or perhaps- not that she could remember- he must have talked about his grandmother on a past mission or something. That’s where her subconscious would have gotten it when it had conjured up her imagined daughter. “Urm, this might sound strange, but have you ever told me that?”

“The name?”

“I mean that if you ever had a daughter, you’d want to name her Grace?”

“No, I’ve never mentioned that before. Why?”

“Have you ever talked about your grandmother?”

“Not by name that I recall, why?” He hadn’t? But she didn’t know a Grace, not even from her schooldays and all the moving around she’d done as a kid every time her Dad had been reassigned. She’d thought at the time it had been an odd choice for her brain to have called that girl on the ship, but then again, she had been severely concussed.

“I think Grace is perfect,” knowing immediately that she’d failed to voice enough conviction.

“Sam, you know I can always tell when you’re not telling me something.”

“Okay this will sound totally crazy but I think I might have met her.”

There was a pause as Jack stared incredulously at her, his eyebrows almost hitting the ceiling.

“Urm, okay, yes, I have to say that does sound pretty crazy. When do you think you met her?”

“When I was trapped in the nebula on the Prometheus,” she started, feeling her cheeks redden as embarrassment at her confession began to creep in. At least he wasn't laughing at her. Jack always had given her the benefit of the doubt and trusted her wacky theories back when they were on SG-1, and thankfully, still now. “The ship’s shields were failing. The ship was about to implode and I saw this girl called Grace on the ship and she gave me the idea to create the subspace bubble to inhibit the effects of the corrosive gas on the hull.”

There was a pause, and she felt as though she was being scrutinized. “I don’t remember that being in your report,” he said almost admonishingly.

“I didn’t want anyone to think I was crazy,” she said ashamedly.

“Hmm, can’t see why anyone would think believing your future child saved your life is crazy?” he said, voice laden with sarcasm.

“Funny, but she saved me and the entire crew, Jack,” she said with conviction, “or at least, that idea- however I got it- did.”

“You really think our daughter’s going to travel back in time to save her mother?”

“I dunno, surely we’ve seen stranger things. Hey don’t forget that Cassie’s gonna send us back to 1998 when we travel too far into the future after our trip to 1969.”

“Oh yeah, I’d forgotten about that. Okay, actually, considering everything we’ve seen I guess it doesn’t sound that far-fetched that our baby would go back in time to save you... wait, she wasn’t a baby, was she?”

“No, of course not! I think she was about seven or eight years old.”

“Wow. Sounds like there might be some fun in store for you little Gracie when you’re a bit older,” he said fondly to her stomach.

“How does Grace Janet sound?” the idea suddenly coming to her.

“That sounds perfect. Cassie’ll love that,” he said smiling. “Urm, would I be breaking some kind of cosmic time law if I ask what Grace looked like on the ship?”

“No, of course not,” giggling. After all these years the way he still feigned ignorance about science still tickled her. 

“Well you know me, I know nothing about that stuff, so…”

“Let me draw a picture,” she said, grabbing the notepad and pen laying beside the room phone. “I don’t remember exactly, of course, it was so long ago and I had a super concussion at the time.”

“I can’t forget that. Why did you call me Jack when you woke up in the infirmary, anyway?”

“Oh,” she said, blushing at the recollection. “I kind of had an, I guess you could say, _intimate conversation_ with the you I imagined on the ship.”

“Oh ho! Did you now?” he said, clearly intrigued to hear this piece of information. “I can only hope the real me lives up to the fantasy version of me you made.”

“Oh believe me, you’re certainly a better kisser than I could have ever imagined,” she beamed, feeling her cheeks burn at the confession.

“Now that’s saying a lot when I’m competing with the constructs of a mind like yours,” he quipped, looking quite pleased with himself. “Anyway, no distractions, I believe you were about to draw me a picture of our daughter.”

“Right, sorry,” she said, a bit flustered. Straightening the pen in her hand and pulling the notepad to rest on her knee, she began to draw several long strokes. “She had long wavy, blonde hair like this, and a beautiful oval-shaped face like this,” indicating the shape she’d just drawn. “I guess she looked a lot like me when I was younger, but her eyes, her eyes were absolutely yours,” she said, scribbling several tight circles to darken the iris she’d drawn.

“They're supposed to be my eyes?” pointing at the patches of darkened ink.

“You don’t see it?”

“Urm, I don’t see eyes at all! It’s a good thing we never had to rely on your drawing ability to save the galaxy!” 

“Hey!” she protested, batting him with the notepad playfully.

“I swear if our baby comes out looking like that I’m running a mile!”

“Well, you’ll just have to believe me, she was beautiful. She will be beautiful.”

“Oh I know that already, she has you for a mother!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that was certainly tooth-rottingly fluffy! Sorry for that! The story will really pick up in the next chapter, and the last chapter will definitely take an interesting and hopefully original tangent, so please bear with me!
> 
> A/N: The fifth Daedalus-class ship they're working on at Area 51 is the Sun Tzu, and the sixth that Sam will (in my story at least) help design will become the George Hammond that Sam later commands.


	4. Are You Kidding Me?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hold on tight, incoming space battle within a kidfic!  
> Set during the episode of SGU: Alliances, Season 2 episode 13.
> 
> Written for Fictober prompts Day 23 "Do we have to?" and Day 24 "Are you kidding me?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know SGU's not popular with everyone, so I've tried my best to write it in a way that you don't need to have watched SGU to appreciate what's going on. Please note that the 'Stones' refers to the Ancient Communication Stones we first see in SG1 season 8-the crew of the Destiny now across the Universe use them to communicate with Earth. And David Telford is a Colonel who ends up based at Homeworld Command, which is where Jack is still Head of.
> 
> Sam and Jack do not appear in this episode at all, likely due to acting schedules etc, but it is reasonable to believe they would have been there for the events of the episode.

**2011**

“Oh cayin’ ah’ loud’!” exclaimed a little pajama-clad girl in frustration, struggling to tear off the colourful paper from the box she was clutching.

“Gracie, I know you’re upset Daddy’s at work today, but can I tell you a secret?” 

“Mmm?” she mustered, furiously wiping away a tear from her cheek with her sleeve.

“Daddy promised to pick you up a cake on the way home, which means you get to have two cakes! One today, on your real birthday, and then one on the weekend when Auntie Cassie and Vala, and Uncle Danny, Teal’c and Cam get here for your party!”

“Two cake!? Woo-hoo!” she exclaimed in a perfect imitation of her father’s standard reaction to the thought of cake, her dark chocolate eyes glistening with excitement. She really was becoming more and more like her father each day, Sam thought. Her otherwise fair features- the long, flowing blonde locks, already chiselled-looking cheeks, pinched chin and pale skin were definitely all her own, though. Frighteningly intelligent for her young age, too; already beginning to read and speaking in full sentences at her tender age. Each time Sam’d get back from her occasional long stints ferrying passengers back and forth between Earth and Pegasus she'd find find that her daughter had picked up another fifty or so new vocabularies, as well as what she liked to refer as _Jack-isms_ , plus usually a new interest. Last time she’d come back to find that Grace was now into anything that could fly, including space vehicles and airplanes, much to her immense pride.

“You need some help with opening your present?” Sam asked her daughter, clearly so distracted by the thought of cake that she seemed to have forgotten that she was in the middle of opening the biggest present she’d received; the rest of which she had promised to keep for when Jack got home late afternoon. Not that two-year-olds were known for being able to keep their promises, she thought to herself with a chuckle. She’d already made the decision to hide the present that Jack had picked out for her- a jet plane lego set- knowing that he’d be upset if he missed the unwrapping.

“Oh yeah,” she said dreamily, her brain still stuck on the thought of cake goodness, before re-engaging her attention on the present-opening and picking up the box again and giving the paper shredding another shot. “I got i’,” she said confidently, again sounding like her father, and this time to her surprise triumphantly uncovering a yellow box. “Mummy, look! Pywamid!” ‘Hah! Daniel’ll be pleased she knows that word,’ she thought. A black National Geographic logo adorned the corner, with a large picture of a pyramid and several tools printed around the sides. “Ah...c... wha’ dis Mummy?” Grace asked, trying to read the long word printed across the middle of the box. 

“Archaeology. It means digging up old things. Two guesses who this present is from, ‘ey?” she said, smiling fondly. She was looking forward to seeing the rest of the gang at the birthday party arranged for the end of the week; it had been more than half a year since she’d last seen all her friends together. With Teal'c sharing his time between establishing the permanent colonies of the new Jaffa Nation and SG-1, Cam and Vala still continuing their duties on SG-1, and Daniel spending more and more time on Atlantis than the SGC as of late, it was getting harder and harder to gather the SG-1 club in one place for a reunion. Cassie, too, had been busy at UCLA studying biochemistry, though since moving on to her Masters course, her schedule had at least become a little freer to permit visits to Washington here and there. Grace had become very fond of her Aunt- technically and legally, in fact, her adopted sister- Cassie, who loved to spoil the little girl.

“Mummy can I open dis?” Grace asked, only to jump up in surprise at the sound of the sudden ringing of Sam’s cell phone.

“D’oh,” said Sam, quickly admonishing herself for uttering a Jack-ism herself, before getting up to grab her phone from the coffee table.

“Colonel Carter,” she answered.

“Colonel, this is Major Franklin,” came her First Officer’s hurried voice, sounding extremely urgent. “I’m sorry for calling you on your day off, but there’s an emergency. You’re being called to duty immediately. Please prepare for immediate transport.”

“Wait, I’ve got my daughter with me,” she replied, spying her daughter shaking the contents of her new pyramid playset onto the floor. “Can you send her to General O’Neill’s office at the Pentagon?”

“That’s the thing, Colonel, intel says Homeworld Command is under imminent threat of attack from the Lucian Alliance.” 

“Are you kidding me?!” Shit, she hoped Jack was okay.

“Err, no Ma’am, I’m not ‘kidding’,” Franklin replied to her rhetorical retort.

“Sorry, right. Understood,” she said, doing her best to steady her composure until she knew all the facts. “Grace’ll have to come with me. Two ready for transport.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

A flash of light later and they found themselves in the middle of the bridge of the George Hammond. 

“Colonel on the bridge!” came Franklin’s announcement, and the crew stood to attention in military form, doing their best to mask any surprise at the unexpected tiny girl wearing rocket-motif pyjamas standing beside their Commanding Officer. Sam thanked the gods that she herself had decided to get dressed before breakfast today, although admittedly, she wished the cardigan she’d picked out was less pink. But there were more pressing things to worry about now though, she thought.

“Status report,” she said authoritatively, knocking back any chance of any comments about her daughter accompanying her. She needed to know what was happening right now, and if Jack was okay. No time for distractions.

“Colonel, the rest of the crew are being beamed aboard as we speak. We’re in orbit above Washington, and the Pentagon and the surrounding radius of one kilometer is being evacuated as we speak.”

_*Beep beep*_

“Colonel,” reported Captain Jennifer Hailey who also, she was relieved to see, hadn’t had time to change out of her casual clothes. “Sensors are picking up a weak signal. A bogey headed our way. Judging by the size and speed it’s… it looks like it’s a cloaked cargo ship, Ma’am.”

“Thank you, Captain,” and turning to her best pilot, Major Pat Meyers, she quickly ordered, “Hold us steady Major, let me know when the ship’s in range to fire.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” she replied, readying her finger at the console.

“Shields up just in case, but I don’t expect them to fire on us and give away their position.”

“Shields going up, Ma’am,” came Major Kevin Marks- her weapons officer-‘s affirmation, and the shields could be seen appearing in the window outside.

“Oooh,” came Grace’s voice in awe at the sudden blue light. 

“Crew’s all aboard now, Colonel,” informed Franklin, to which Sam nodded her affirmation.

“Captain Chandler, open a channel to the ship, broadcast on all frequencies.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” replied her helmsman.

“Unknown vessel, this is Colonel Carter of the U.S.S. George Hammond. Your approach toward Earth is unauthorized and considered hostile. If you continue, it will be considered an act of war and we will be forced to open fire.”

“Mummy, look, space,” Grace whispered, staring out the front window, gripping her leg tightly, but there was no time to answer.

“No reply, Ma’am,” confirmed Chandler. 

“Captain Hailey, distance to bogey?”

“Ma’am, the signal’s unclear due to their cloak but it looks like they’re about two-hundred thousand clicks off our starboard. They must have been hiding behind the moon.” Just as Osiris’ ship had done that time it had hidden cloaked, Sam recalled. The moon was once again a blind spot when it came to Earth's defense. She'd have to bring that up with Jack if- no, _when_ \- they both got through this safely.

“Major Marks, prepare to fire at will on target when they come in range.” Their ship’s weapons would only be effective to a range of ten thousand clicks or so.

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“Colonel, incoming from the SGC.”

“On-screen," she commanded. "This is Colonel Carter aboard the General Hammond.”

“Colonel, Landry here,” and his face appeared on the smaller overhead monitors, expression both friendly, but also business-like. “You’re aboard? Good. Nice cardigan.” 

“Thank you Sir," she said, looking down and recalling with shame that she was out of uniform. "You too, Sir,” she threw back, commenting on the standard Air Force cardigan he generally sported.

“You up to speed, Colonel?”

“Yes, Sir, and we’ve just picked up what appears to be a cloaked cargo ship coming from behind the moon, headed for Earth. No response to communication. I’m guessing you can't see it?”

There was a pause while the General checked. “No NORAD can’t see it yet. And with the Apollo still under repair and the Odyssey on its way back from Pegasus, you’re our eyes and ears, Colonel.”

“Understood, Sir. We’re prepared to engage. Carter out.”

And at a nod the communication was severed, and the overhead monitors went blank.

“Bogey approaching, one hundred thousand clicks and closing,” said Hailey.

“Understood. Get ready Marks.”

“Ready, Ma’am.”

“Chandler, open a comms to Homeworld Command.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” came his immediate reply. “Open, Ma’am.”

“Homeworld Command this is Colonel Carter aboard the George Hammond, come in,” she spoke in a loud, clear voice, aware that the panic of the evacuation underway may make her difficult to be heard on the ground.

In the brief pause before a reply was heard, she held her breath, her heart standing still. Was Jack okay down there? She prayed that it would be his voice that she head next.

There was a crackle in the radio as the line was picked up. “Carter, this is Telford," came a panting voice, as though they'd been running, "we read you down here.” Her heart dropped in dismay before she reminded herself that it didn't mean anything that Jack hadn't answered the radio. As Head of Homeworld Command, he would surely be busy right now with ensuring his people's evacuation was going smoothly. Several shouts could be heard in the background, though to her disappointment, none of them sounded like her husband's.

“David, we have what we think is a Lucian Alliance cargo ship headed your way.”

A beeping sound from a bridge console was heard before Major Marks announced, “Target coming into range. Opening fire on the ship,” and following a groan of the ship, pulses of weapons’ fire could be seen firing away into the black of space; the bogey still too small to be seen.

“Aaaah,” came Grace’s small voice from beside her, and Sam looked down to the little girl beside her, who at some point had reached to hold her hand, and saw the orange lights being fired outside reflected in her daughter’s black eyes.

Sam continued to speak into the open line. “No response to our attempt at contact, we’re attempting to engage fire, but she’s cloaked.”

“Their cloak’s too good, we’re practically firing blind, Colonel,” informed Hailey.

“Understood,” Telford replied, and the sound of an alarm going off could be heard over the comm line. “Homeworld evac is fifty-percent complete down here.”

“Good, we’ll keep you posted, Carter out,” and she hoped to god that Jack was among that fifty-percent who were already out to relative safety.

“All right, keep going, let's go folks!” she heard Telford shout out to what must be the personnel evacuating the Pentagon before her helmsman cut off the line at her nod.

“Bogey’s approaching but we keep missing the mark. It looks like it’s going to pass us and reach orbit in approximately twenty seconds,” Hailey informed her.

“Marks, prepare for pursuit if necessary. We _cannot_ let that ship reach its target,” she stressed. 'We can't fail. Hundreds of people’s lives may depend on it. The secrecy of the entire program may depend on it!', she thought

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“Open that channel to the ship again, Chandler.”

“Channel open, Ma’am.”

“This is the U.S.S Hammond. We know you are of the Lucian Alliance. This is your last warning. Your silence is taken as a sign of aggression, and you will be shot down.”

Silence once again followed. The channel was cut at her nod. 

“Ten seconds until flyby.” Walking over to looking over Hailey’s shoulder at the sensor readings, she immediately knew what Hailey knew. Without knowing the exact frequency of the cloak- which was clearly different to that of Osiris’ old cloaked ship upon which their sensors were based- they could only detect the position of the Lucian Alliance cargo ship to within a margin of five kilometers or so, making hitting the small mark extremely difficult at this range and their relative speeds.

“Five seconds to flyby.”

“Marks?”

“Sorry Colonel, I can’t get a definite lock on the target, we’re firing half-blind here.”

“I know, don’t give up, we’re all that stands between that ship and Homeworld Command.”

“Yes, Ma’am," he replied determinedly, before suddenly whooping, "Ah! We got it!” he shouted, face now alight with pride.

“Nicely done, Major!” Sam praised. ‘Thank god!’

“No, Ma’am,” Hailey interjected. “Ship is still on route. It will reach Earth’s atmosphere in five, four, three, two, one.”

“Meyers,” Sam steadied herself, it wasn’t over yet, then, “pursuit course. Fingers crossed the damage already done will cause it to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. Hailey, don’t let it out of our sight. And get me Telford back on the line.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” rang a chorus of affirmatives all around.

“Wow,” squealed her daughter, mesmerized by the sight of Earth appearing to get larger as they followed the enemy ship down towards its target, where, unknown to her, her father was located.

“Channel open.”

“Estimated time for the ship to reach Homeworld Command, fifty seconds,” Hailey informed her. 

“Thank you, Captain,” she said quietly. Damn her calculations were fast, she was glad to have hand-picked her as head of science on her ship. Speaking up to make sure she was heard on the open comm, she shouted, “David, it’s Sam, do you read?”

“Carter, O’Neill here, status report,” and the unexpected sound of her husband’s voice filled her with such immense relief that she was stunned for a second. Judging from the more distant sound of the alarm and the lack of echo of the shouts around him, it sounded like he was outside. Thank god, she thought, even if he’s not out of danger yet.

“Daddy!!” shrieked Grace unexpectedly. Sam had actually forgotten she was there, but there was no time to pause in embarrassment at the fact that her daughter had just referred to her Commanding Officer as ‘Daddy’ in front of her crew.

“Sir, the Lucian Alliance ship has just entered Earth’s atmosphere and is headed your way,” she said, having recovered from her surprise and Grace’s interjection, hoping that he wouldn’t have been able to hear his daughter’s voice over the background noise on the ground. If he had, though, he didn’t give any indication he had done so.

“We know, it looks like you’ve damaged its cloak, NORAD’s tracking it now,” and she saw Hailey nod in confirmation that the cloak’s effects were failing. 

“Forty seconds to mark,” Hailey said, continuing her countdown.

“We’re in pursuit, attempting to intercept. Less than forty seconds ‘til it makes your position, Sir.”

“We’re still evaccing, but most are out. You’re all we’ve got, do what you can, Sam.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Thirty seconds.”

“Colonel, I’ve got a lock on the target,” said Marks gleefully. “The Earth’s atmosphere is causing it heat up, we’ve got her now!”

“Take it out!” Sam commanded. They _couldn’t_ miss, Jack’s life might depend on it! And at a button’s press the flurry of light beams focused their aim as they passed through the wispy clouds of the stratosphere.

“Colonel, the ship should have started slowing by now if they were planning to land,” came Hailey’s puzzled-sounding voice, and once again Sam looked over to see the readings on her console. 

“You think it’s a kamikaze run?”

“Yes, Ma’am, it looks like it.” Oh shit, she thought. It didn’t matter if they hit the ship now, it would be on a collision course, either way.

“Direct hit!” exclaimed Marks, punching the air, and through the clouds the ship could now be seen futzing into view as its cloak failed entirely.

“Twenty seconds.”

“Marks, hold fire and Meyers take us back up to orbit, now!” she barked.

“Err, yes, Ma’am,” and they obeyed, Marks visibly disappointed after he’d finally nailed the ship’s position. And, beginning their sudden ascent, the cargo ship dropped out of view, the window's view turning white with cloud, the ship’s cannons going silent.

“General, are you still on the line?”

“Go ahead, Carter!” he said with a raised voice, sounding as equally out-of-breath as Telford had earlier, and she could hear more chaos now, tens of various voices were shouting in the background, the alarm blaring more loudly again. Was he headed back closer to the Pentagon? She knew it was likely he would risk his own life to make sure everyone got out, but there was no time anymore!

“Sir, we’ve had to pull up!” she said hurriedly, the view in the window turning darker with each second. “We can’t risk firing on the ship anymore, the debris would rain down on the city. I’m sorry, it looks like it’s on a kamikaze trajectory, it’ll crash into the Pentagon in about fifteen seconds.”

“Understood, you did all you could. O’Neill out!”

“Stay safe, Sir!” ‘Please don’t die, Jack, please don’t die.’

“Mummy? Why Daddy shout?” Grace asked, looking up in alarm, both hands clinging to Sam's pants leg.

“Enemy ship will reach its mark in ten, nine, eight-”

“Turn off the comm,” she ordered. They didn’t need to hear the screams as the ship hit. Nor could she bear to hear the moment that Jack might-

“Seven-,” 

“Comm channel out.”

“Five-,” ‘Jack, please be okay,’ “three-,” ‘I’m sorry we couldn’t stop it,’ “-one, mark.”

The entire bridge fell into solemn silence- each officer surely praying for the lives at the Pentagon- just as the outside view turned pitch black marking their re-entry into space. Sam didn’t want to imagine the chaos down there right now. Didn’t want to think about the worst case scenario. Forcing herself to tear her heart away from thoughts of her husband on the surface, and to re-engage professional mode, all she could do now was make sure things wouldn’t get any worse from now onward.

“Keep your eyes peeled, everyone,” she said, breaking the silence. “Keep scanning in case that ship wasn’t alone. The Lucian Alliance will surely have another trick up their sleeve.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“Colonel, I've got the SGC on the line,” said Meyers.

“Put them through,” she ordered. They would already know that she’d failed to stop the attack on the Pentagon. She felt like she’d let the entire operation down: the SGC, The President, Homeworld Command… and now the Pentagon may be lying in ruins because of her failure to destroy the ship. Any lives lost would be on her head.

“SGC, go ahead,” and she tried to hide the fear and disappointment in her voice, making an effort to compose her face as Landry reappeared on the screen.

“Colonel, I’m sorry to report that the cargo ship has crashed into the inner-north side of the Pentagon,” came Landry’s gruff voice. ‘Oh my god,' she thought with a jolt, 'that’s where Jack would have been if we hadn’t had the intel!'

“I’m sorry we didn’t stop it, Sir.”

“Not your fault.” At least he didn’t look mad. He was merely wearing a heavy-hearted expression, probably mirroring her own face. “And you did good disabling the cloak." She appreciated the small praise, though she wasn't sure she deserved it. "Stay put and be on the lookout for a potential second attack.”

“Yes Sir, already on it.”

“I’m sure you are. I’ll keep you posted. Landry out.”

\---

It was already dark outside when the jangling sound of keys and the rustle of the lock being opened had Grace jump up from her toy pyramid excavating and running towards the front door.

“Daddy!!! I miss' you!”

“Hey big girl! Happy birthday!” and she watched as Jack appeared from around the doorway and into the living room, put down his things, before scooping their daughter up in his arms and planting a big kiss on her cheek. Sam felt as though she'd been holding her breath the entire time since the ship had crashed in the Pentagon. The sight of him here, at home, safe and sound, made her feel so light; she felt herself smile for the first time since that morning and release a contended sigh. The relief that he was okay and home back safe in time for what little was remaining of their daughter’s birthday was just overwhelming. “How old are you now?” She saw him ask, his entire attention still on the beaming little girl in his arms.

“I two!” she shouted in reply, holding up three fingers, and Sam couldn’t help but break out into a fit of giggles at the recollection of her father deliberately miscounting the number of ‘l’s in his name on more than one occasion. They really were too alike. She didn't know what she would have done if she'd lost Jack today, and how she could have coped with the daily reminders of him emanating from their daughter.

“Jack, I’m so glad you’re okay," and she joined the hug, squeezing her husband and sandwiching their daughter between them. "You’re all clear?”

“Yeah, the exposure to radiation from the bomb was minimal, I’m fine.”

“Thank god, I was so worried." Radiation had become a rather touchy subject since the trauma of losing Daniel that time. “You know, I wanted to transport you to safety aboard the Hammond when we realized we weren’t going to be able to stop the ship-”

“But that would have been showing favouritism. You’d have faced charges for abuse of power. You did the right thing, Sam.”

“I know, but it was so hard. I felt so helpless in the seconds before it hit.”

“I know. I know,” he said, kissing the top of her head, before leaning forward to do the same to Grace. “You know, I never would have thought I’d see that kinda action again after becoming one of the brass.”

“And I never would have thought you’d owe your life to a member of the Destiny crew. Did I hear that right?”

“Actually it looks like it was one of the Lucian Alliance on Destiny. Apparently they told Senator Michaels and Doctor Covel how to disarm the naquadria bomb when they were trapped in the rubble. We got incredibly lucky that the Stones weren’t hit by the crash, or they’d have lost their connection and the whole of D.C. would have-” but he was interrupted by Grace’s sudden outburst before he could finish that terrible thought.

“Daddy! My cake! Where my cake?” she said, pounding her palms against her father’s chest to air grabbing his attention.

“Your cake?”

“Mummy said Daddy buy birthday cake. Where my cake?”

“Ah crap, I totally forgot to stop by the bakery after the whole mess that was today.”

“I’m sorry honey,” trying to calm Grace before she put two and two together and figured out there wasn’t any cake. “Daddy had a very busy day.”

“And so did you, I hear?” he said, looking at Grace.

“Oh god, I’m busted, aren’t I?” said Sam quietly, hiding her face in her hands, and stepping out of the hug.

“You actually had Grace on the Hammond, Sam?!” his voice increasing in pitch with each word, the sudden rise in voice seemingly distracting Grace from her demands for cake.

“Jack, I’m so sorry! There was absolutely no time at all, not even time to beam her to the SGC. The Lucian Alliance ship appeared on our sensors the second we were aboard.”

She thought he was going to reprimand her, but then he surprised her by breaking out into a laugh. ”What’s so funny?” she asked half-relieved, half-cautiously.

“I’m sorry, I’m just imagining the look on everyone’s face when you beamed aboard with this tiny one!”

“Thankfully they were very professional, actually. But explaining why she’d called you “Daddy” to the bridge crew after I’d finally had the chance to beam her safely to the SGC until things calmed down was absolutely mortifying!” she said, feeling her cheeks flush at the memory. “I practically ordered them to keep it to themselves, not that I'm sure I can really order them to do something like that.”

“Ha-hah!” he spluttered, still laughing. “Well, you know, if the secret’s out now, maybe it’s finally time to change your name to Colonel Carter-O’Neill,” he suggested with a flirtatious lick to his voice, and she saw him set Grace carefully down on the floor, before reaching up to cup her own face and bringing her gently to his own as their lips met in a long kiss.

The warmth and taste of his mouth was so reassuring, so real. She reveled in the kiss, thanking the stars that he was home safe and sound, trying not to think about how close it had been: the naquadriah bomb had been seconds away from going off- 

“Cake! Mummy, Daddy, I want cake!”

At the interruption from their daughter, they had no choice but to reluctantly end the kiss, both pulling away at the same time and looking down to see their little girl jumping up and down, signs of a tantrum brewing evident.

“Guess we’re going out to get some cake, then,” Jack commented simply.

“But it’s so late," Sam protested, "it’s already past nine, and she’s already bathed and in her pyjamas. Do we have to?”

“CAKE!” both Grace and Jack shouted in unison.

\-------

And in what was the first of many, many times to follow, Sam would soon find that she would always be outvoted in matters related to dessert.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was super fun and exciting to write, I should totally write more space battles :D
> 
> I'm busy with Hallowe'en Week at the school I run, but I'll do my best to get the last chapter of this story up by the 31st!


	5. Give me that

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Written for Fictober 2020 prompt Day 27: "Give me that"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been super swamped with work and a ton of headaches, so I'm struggling to write the rest of the story. I will get it done, but I'm not sure I can finish by October 31st. Here's what I have for now, though!
> 
> Apologies for any mistakes, this story is un-betad and I haven't had much time to re-read through this chapter.

**2015**

****

With the sun’s light finally back to streaming bright through the tall stained glass windows, she felt infused with energy. The long periods of darkness here were something she would never get used to, always leaving her feeling unbalanced. Albeit not as cranky as her husband would always get, despite the unhindered spectacular night view offered from her latest posting. Without the presence of an atmosphere, the ZPM-powered shield remained perfectly transparent, allowing for a most spectacular view of the night sky when the sun had set. During the two-week long lunar nights, she and Jack would often take the kids down to one of the piers to go stargazing with the old rooftop telescope that he’d been unable to part with. It had originally been Charlie’s, after all. Smiling to herself at the memory of Grace’s excitement at managing to catch one of Mars’ moons into the telescope’s field of view by herself for the first time, she rounded the staircase and ascended them to reach the conference room, the doors sliding slickly open upon her approach.

Brigadier General Carter-O’Neill took a seat at the head of the table, where the science team were already seated, waiting for her. She noted the eager look in each of their faces as they sat up in anticipation at the start of the briefing, feeling her own excitement brewing. They must have discovered something good to have called for her to meet so suddenly. And unlike her predecessor- who held a certain unabashed disdain for the field of scientific discovery- she, the new Leader of Homeworld Command, certainly didn’t grumble at being woken up so early for such a briefing. And as she listened to the team, who had apparently been up all night excitedly photographing and cataloguing the latest treasure trove of Atlantis' that had been uncovered, she couldn’t help but feel nostalgic. Their eagerness, their curiosity, their thirst for knowledge; they were just like her back in her days on SG-1 when she was still a plucky Captain. She had made the right choices when handpicking the team whose job was to continue with the exploration of Atlantis. Eleven years had now passed since John and the first Earth expedition had started inhabiting the city, but fifty-percent of the city still lay untouched; the scale of the city’s structure and the danger that could be hiding behind any door made its exploration painstakingly slow considering previous incidents and mishaps. And they certainly didn’t want to unleash another “killer cloud” as John had called it. Not to mention the sheer enormity of the Ancients’ databanks meant that, according to Daniel, they had still ‘barely scratched the surface’ of documenting the entirety of the database. The undiscovered secrets no doubt still hiding within the city meant that Atlantis now served not only as a military base- a defensive vantage in case of an attack on Earth- but also as a city of scientific exploration and research. And as its leader, Sam was incredibly appreciative that she had been gifted with what she could only call her dream job.

She listened on as, in turn, the members of the three piece team showed various pieces of technology unearthed in the latest lab to be found. It wasn’t unusual to come across a new lab, scientific research seemed to have been a common pastime of the Asurans. But this seemed to be the richest room they had encountered since she had taken post as leader here. In fact, and she tried to curtail the excitement brewing within her at the thought, it looked to be on par with Janus’ lab that Daniel and Rodney had found several years ago. The team had certainly come to the same conclusion, having excitedly explained the difficulty they had found with accessing the lab, and she sat back and allowed them to animatedly discuss and share their theories amongst themselves on what each piece of technology might be, only joining their discussion when prompted. Despite her vast experience with alien technology- with almost twenty years under her belt, she was still considered Earth’s expert on alien devices- she always made sure to keep her opinions and ideas to herself to allow her teams to learn and grow by themselves. As leader, of course, it was part of her job to groom and raise her successors, and unlike with the military personnel, she always made a point to give her civilian staff encouragement, not direction.

The scientist closest to her gave the tablet he was holding another side-swipe, now displaying the next item of interest. The image showed a golden, almost teardrop-shaped device, adorned with an orange jewel in the centre. The sight of which made something in her stir with recognition.

“This next piece initially looks to be decorative, but-”

“Wait. Give me that,” she instructed, and the scientist whom she had cut off immediately handed over the tablet at her command. 

She stared at the image. It appeared to be palm-sized, and she couldn’t help but feel that the ornate orange oval in the centre looked like a button. The mental image of it being pressed nagged at her. It did something. She felt that she’d seen it activate, or trigger something before, but what it was or _did_ she just couldn’t place.

“General, have you seen this device before?” she heard one of the scientists ask.

“Yes, I think so,” she replied without looking up. She didn’t see the three scientists looking curiously at each other, each deciding to remain quiet to allow their leader the chance to recall any piece of information that could be vital to their discovery.

After a moment’s silence, she made up her mind. She had to see the real device. She felt, _knew_ it was important.

“We can finish up this briefing later, show me the device.”

“Yes, General,” they all barked, and filed out of the conference room to lead the way to the nearby transporter.

A few minutes later they were walking along a damaged, blue-tinged corridor in a tall building on the far outer-west part of the city, almost two kilometers from the control tower. Sam never ceased to be amazed by the scale of the city. She wondered if thousands and thousands of Asurans must have lived here at some point. It couldn’t always have been so bare, the way the one hundred-strong personnel currently living on Atlantis aka the Moon Base aka Homeworld Command aka what was informally known as Area 52, made it seem.

They soon entered a darkened lab, which immediately lit up upon their arrival; Sam, as well as the other members of the team, had been given the ATA gene therapy to assist with their operation and research.

“I think it’s around here somewhere,” one of the team members muttered vaguely, and Sam decided to stand in the doorway on guard, her hand resting on the zat always stowed in her pocket, ears pricked in case one of the devices decided to spontaneously attack or explode. After twenty years she’d long learned not to trust a room full of alien devices, and her mind jumped back to several memories of Jack scolding both her and Daniel for touching strange objects. Thankfully however, after a minute of the team’s search, and no ill surprises, the sole male of the team had located the object.

“Over here, General!” he exclaimed, pointing to the contents of an old, bent shelf that had clearly warped with age.

She was pleased to see that he hadn’t touched the device, and would have bet a hundred dollars that it had been Rodney that had drummed it into him to not touch strange things, before he’d left Atlantis to settle on Earth with Jennifer a year prior.

She, herself however, couldn’t help but reach out to pick it up. She’d definitely seen it before and instinctively felt that it didn’t pose any danger. As she touched the metal a tingly sensation told her it was infused with naquadah, and to her surprise, as she began to turn the device around in her palm to examine the back, it suddenly flipped itself and a pair of bands whipped out from nowhere and melded themselves around her wrist, fixing it to the top of her hand.

“Woah!” everyone cried out, looking stunned and clueless as to what to do.

‘Oh boy, Jack’s gonna kill me for this,’ she thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned! 1 or possibly 2 chapters to go!


	6. I Trust You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Written to go with Fictober 2020 Prompt Day 31: I Trust You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alas, I couldn’t get round to finishing this story by my deadline of Fictober aka October 31st, so here’s another chapter of what I have so far until I can complete this.
> 
> Happy Hallowe’en!

_’Oh boy, Jack’s gonna kill me for this,’ she thought._

———-

“Really?!” shouted Jack incredulously, uncaring of the volume of his own voice. He could not believe Sam had gone and done this! “I expected better, to be honest,” he admonished. He didn’t know whether he felt more angry that she had done something so stupid, or relieved that she hadn’t dropped dead. “Daniel I can imagine, but you?!”

“Hey, I am here you know!” he heard Daniel call from behind the curtain, signalling his arrival in the infirmary.

“Hey, you’re not my CO anymore,” Sam countered, ignoring Daniel’s interruption, “so you can’t reprimand me anymore.” Hah, she’s definitely embarrassed, he thought. She always got defensive when she fucked up, which to be fair, wasn’t very often.

“I might not be your CO anymore, but we are married, you know, so please don’t do stupid things and risk making me not only a widow but a single parent to our kids, you hear?”

“Yes, _Sir_ ,” she replied mockingly. Ugh, the cheek! But the glint of humour in her eyes made him let the snide remark pass. “Anyway, Daniel can you come in here?” she called through the curtain. “Look at this, have you seen this before?”

He saw Daniel appear cautiously, peering back and forth between himself and Sam before uttering, “I’m not interrupting a couple’s fight, am I?”

“Haha very funny, Daniel,” Sam said lightly, though with a touch of annoyance in her voice. Probably more at herself than at him or Daniel, he thought. “Just come and look at this, will you?” Sam asked and she waved him over, extending her other hand to give him a closer look at the metallic object now firmly attached to it.

“Hmm, reminds me of the time Vala snared me into being stuck to her with those Goa’uld wristbands,” he muttered, taking Sam’s hand and turning it over to examine the object that was fixed firmly to her skin. “There’s only one?”

“That we found, yes,” she replied. “Have you seen this particular design before?”

“No, I can’t say that I recognise it, Sam, nor can I see any form of writing on it, either,” he supplied while reaching to touch the bands tightly encasing her wrists.

“Should you be even touching that, Daniel?” asked Jack, to which Daniel promptly put down Sam’s hand and backed away in alarm, to his amusement.

“Well it doesn’t appear to be active or doing anything right now,” Sam observed, examining the device herself again, as if hoping to notice something different. “But I really feel strongly that I’ve seen a device just like this before. Do you recognise it, Jack?”

Honestly, to him, the thing looked like every other gold over-the-top decorative riff-raff that they’d seen every scum-sucking snakehead have. Seriously, did they not have any original decor ideas? Through his years on SG-1 he’d come to hate the colour, and the metal itself, frankly. So much so that he’d insisted their wedding rings be made from platinum, not gold. “Hey, you know me, if I’ve seen one gold jewel-ly Goa’uld-looking thing, I’ve seen a million gold jewel-ly things,” he replied, rocking on the balls of his feet to signal that he wasn’t going to be any more help.

“It can’t be of Goa’uld origin if it was found here, Jack,” she chided.

“Oh, right,” he conceded, sheepishly stuffing his hands in his pockets.

At that moment Dr. McBride, the Chief Medical Officer of the base came back to his patient.

“Well, your blood work looks normal, General. It doesn’t look like the object is affecting you _physically_ in any way.” Well at least she’s not in any immediate danger, he thought. But that doesn’t help with getting it off.

“I feel normal, Doctor,” she replied. “But while you’re monitoring me, I’d like to try and turn it on.”

Ugh he just knew she was going to say that. “Is that really a good idea, Sam? Maybe we should wait for Zelenka?” he tried, hoping a stall tactic might work until they figure out a better plan of getting it the hell off Sam’s hand. Well, not a better plan. Just _any_ plan that did not include severing her arm. Sam had already earlier dismissed the science team that had originally discovered the offending device, after they’d brought her to the infirmary; sending them to bed after saying they’d all been up all night and that they’d need rest before they could be useful in helping her. Though he knew better that she’d probably have wanted to try to fix the problem herself before asking for help. 

“Err, I kind of left the kids with Radek…,” Daniel said abashedly.

“With Zelenka? Hah! He hates kids!” Jack said with a smirk at the mental image of Jake climbing all over the scientist and driving him up the walls.

“Yeah, but he was already in the mess when I was there eating breakfast and they love him, plus Jack, you just kind of dumped them on me suddenly to come here and see Sam before she called me here too, so…”

“So... Radek got the babysitting job?”

“Yeah, sorry.” Oh well, they’d have to consult the Chief of Science later on the device, assuming he survives Grace’s ten-million science questions and Jake tearing up his worklab.

“Lucky him,” Sam said with an amused snort. She knew as well as he did that Zelenka hated the kids breaking into his work station and touching his things. They certainly had their mother’s sense of curiosity. “And thanks Daniel for sorting out the kids,” said Sam kindly. “Anyway, I’m going to go ahead and touch the jewel and see what happens. Are you ready?” Not really, Jack thought, but nothing was going to stop Sam when it came to her gadgets.

“I’ll be monitoring in case anything goes wrong,” the Doc confirmed.

“Thank you. Okay, here goes,” and he saw her take a breath before pushing the jewel, which immediately turned bright yellow. Jack felt himself hold his own breath as he watched on to see if hell would start breaking loose. There was a pause, and then her eyes went wide as she yelled, “HOLY HANNAH!”

“Sam! You okay?” both he and Daniel asked in unison.

“Yes! Wow! Err, wait,” and she waved her hands up and down to let them know she didn’t need help. Jack watched on as her eyes darted wildly around the room, her expression one of both amazement and shock. “It’s, wow, it’s, I don’t know how to explain it-”

“Oh for cryin’ out loud!” he couldn’t help utter in frustration. Was she okay or not? “What do you see?”

“That’s so cool!” she exclaimed, and he saw her bring a finger from her bare hand and circle the jewel with her fingertip, making it change green.

“Err, Sam, what are you doing?” Daniel asked.

There was a rumbling and the city alarm came on. Uh-oh.

“Sam?”

But she didn’t answer. Or maybe she wasn’t able to. She looked dumbfounded, frozen in awe at what she must have been seeing. 

“Doc?”

“Heart rate and blood pressure are normal, for now. Physically there are no concerns.”

“No concerns!? She’s totally out of it!” he snapped, clicking his fingers in front of her face.

Suddenly the overhead lights began to flicker, and a crackle came on the radio, followed by a woman’s voice:

“General Carter, this is Banks, come in.” 

Sam, to his concern, didn’t make any reaction, nor did she move to answer her radio, so he took her earpiece and spoke into the microphone himself.

“Control Tower, this is O’Neill,” he replied to the technician, “the General’s a bit preoccupied at the moment, over,” and he looked on uneasily at his wife’s catatonic, wide-eyed expression. 

“Err, Sir,” she spluttered, and he appreciated her calling him by his honorific, even if he was retired, living as a civilian on the base, “there are power fluctuations all over the city, and- oh my god, what the-?! Sir, the gate just started dialling by itself!” And sure enough the sound of the gate dialling could be heard over radio.

“The Atlantis gate?”

“Yes Sir, but obviously it can’t dial out in the Milky Way.”

He saw Sam’s expression change, as though she’d finally come to her senses, and he felt a wave of relief as she grabbed for her own radio back and spoke into the mouthpiece herself. “Amelia, sorry, that was me, just a moment, let me try and shut it down,” and as she traced a counter-clockwise circle around the green-lit jewel, the noise of the dialling sequence over the radio suddenly halted. 

“Err, Ma’am?” came Banks’ confused voice over the radio, clearly at a loss as to how Sam could be responsible.

“Sam?” asked Daniel.

“It’s nothing to worry about. I’ll get back to you, Amelia, Carter out,” and she cut the contact with the Control Tower. “Guys!” she shouted excitedly to the two of them. “I think I know what this does, and where I’ve seen it before!” she said, practically bouncing up and down on the edge of the bed in excitement. He had to say he’d missed seeing her get so worked up over techno-thingies, but he wasn’t going to feel calm until he could be sure she could get that damn thing off her.

“Okay, that’s great, but can you figure out how to get it off your hand?”

“Yeah, I think so. Oh my god, Daniel you’re going to love this! It’s like it’s in Ancient-”

“Okay, okay, Sam! You and Daniel can gush over your new toy after you figure out the off button, okay?”

“That’s just it, Jack, it’s like the interface is in Ancient, but it’s not like I’m reading it or even seeing it, it’s like it’s just there in my mind, if that makes sense.” That made absolutely no sense, but to be fair, when did she ever make sense when she was talking about her gadgets? “But I can’t access most of it because I don’t know that much Ancient.”

“So can you, or can you not get it off?” he found himself barking. Seriously, could she just try to focus on her own goddamn safety for once?!

“What’s Ancient for ‘turn off’?” she asked.

“Well,” began Daniel, “actually there are several ways to indicate ‘end’ in Ancient...” ‘Oh here we go,’ he thought, and deciding he’d rather blow his cover than let Danny prattle on, prolonging any unknown danger she may be in, he decided to jump in and put a stop to Danny’s waffling.

“It’s terminus,” he stated simply. Daniel fell silent, and he could imagine their looks of shock before he even met their eyes. “What?!” he said, feeling some measure of amusement at the sight of their surprise. He always had enjoyed conning people into underestimating him. “I spent months learning Ancient while looping, don’t you remember?”

“Oh yeah…,” mumbled Daniel thoughtfully, and the next moment a noise drew their attention to the device on Sam’s hand, whose metal wristbands suddenly retracted, allowing it to drop onto the floor with a clank, the jewel on the top going dark.

“Nice!” Jack cried, punching the air in triumph and relief. 

“Well done,” praised the Doctor. “I think we’d better avoid anyone touching the device for now,” and he grabbed a pair of tongs and picked up the device and deposited it in a metal tray. “Now, if you don’t mind, General, I’d like to take some readings to make sure you’re unharmed.”

“Sure, yeah, of course, go ahead Doc,” and she stuck her arm out unconsciously, turning back to both him and Daniel with her eyes sparkling with excitement, “Guys, you are not gonna believe where we’ve seen this device before!”

And just at that moment there was a clatter and a yell as Zelenka practically fell into the infirmary, Jake with both arms still clamped around his legs, having clearly unbalanced him.

“General Carter, I’m sorry to interrupt, but your son is trying to kill me!” and he strove to peel the grip of the young boy from his legs, leaving him laying on the floor, before muttering, “nesnáším děti...” under his breath and making a swift escape.

He saw as Sam let out a giggle before shuffling off the bed to scoop their strikingly blond son off the floor. His hair was so fine that under the stark, bright lights of the infirmary he appeared just as bald as his two namesakes. He then saw his daughter, wearing a white summer dress, skulk into the room, her long, curly locks flowing down each of her shoulders; a sad smile playing on her face. 

“Daddy, I don’t think Doctor Radek likes us,” she moaned lethargically across the room, looking genuinely upset at the thought, and she crossed over to him before gently resting her head on his shoulder. He kissed her light brown hair, as he had often done so since she was a little girl, and said:

“How can anyone not like you, beautiful?” and he she answered his rhetorical question with a beaming grin.

“So Sam, you gonna fill us in?” Daniel interrupted, rather nonplussed by the disruption. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen Zelenka lose it with the kids.

Emerging from a hug with Jacob George, Sam said, “Trust me, this is big. Our lives literally depend on it. Probably _everyone’s_ lives, in fact. But I need to make a call to Earth first.”

“Not until you’ve had a full physical, General,” warned Dr. McBright.

“Yes, Doc.”

“Oh come on Sam, why can’t you tell us now?” he couldn’t help whine.

“Honestly Jack, your two-year old son has more patience than you do,” teased Daniel, making Sam giggle.

“You trust me?” she asked.

“Of course I trust you, Sam. _Completely_. Just don’t leave us hanging so long that I die of old age,” he quipped, pleased with his joke. But to his surprise a pensive look came over her, and he could swear he heard her mumble, “It’s funny you say that...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh no, a whole chapter later and we STILL don’t know what it is! Please don’t hate me! The next chapter is super sciencey and super wordy, and I’m having trouble writing it in a way that’s actually interesting to read. But I’ll get there! I promise the payoff will be worth it!


	7. Nineteen-Sixty-Nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally, we find out what the device is for!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! Here's the next installment!  
> 

Several hours later, Daniel, Jack and Sam were all gathered in the conference room, when the sliding doors parted to allow in an Airman, followed by a bewildered-looking young, brown-haired woman with her hair tied neatly into a bun, to enter the room.

“Thank you. You’re dismissed,” Sam nodded to the airman who had escorted the woman, who promptly left; the conference door sliding closed behind him.

“Ah, well if it isn’t Doctor Frasier!” Jack greeted the woman.

“Jack, don’t call me that, I’ve not got my PhD just yet, and I’m not my Mom.”

“No, I know, but she’d be super proud of you. Look at you!” and he got up and gave her a huge hug. Janet truly would have been proud of her adopted daughter, who’d recently turned thirty- at least by reckoning of the age they’d assigned her when she’d come to Earth- and now a few months from earning a doctorate in Virology.

“Cassie!” cried Sam, getting up and waiting in line to give her a hug and a kiss. “You look great! It’s been too long. And thank you for getting here so quick!”

Jack watched as Daniel, too, gave her a kiss on the cheek, and then they all took a seat at the table.

“So, what was the hurry to get me here? Atlantis is amazing, by the way! I can’t wait to see it all!”

“There’ll be plenty of time for a grand tour, I promise,” Jack said impatiently, “but apparently Sam’s discovered something important,” and he pointed to the metallic device, now contained in a sealed plastic box for safety. “She’s been driving us all up the wall all day insisting she won’t tell us without you here.”

“Well, maybe driving _you_ up the wall, Jack. _I_ , on the other hand, possess something called patience-“

“Okay, okay, before you two start off again,” Sam interrupted, as Cassie tried to stifle her giggles, seating herself at the end of the table, “You all ready for this?” She really was enjoying the frustration she was causing them, or well, him, he thought.

“Sam, I swear, if you don’t tell us all right now!” he couldn’t help exclaim in annoyance. He was more than done with the delaying tactics she’d been employing on him all day as he’d attempted and failed to goad her into telling him. But before he could come up with a suitable threat, he saw as she turned to Cassie.

“Cass, do you remember about ten years ago I told you about the time SG-1 was sent back in time?”

Cassie nodded slowly, but he couldn’t help let out a grumble, “Which time?” But before Sam could answer, Daniel suddenly started producing what he could only describe as screeching monkey noises, bouncing up and down in the seat beside him in apparent revelation. 

“Hey, watch it!” he grumpily, rubbing his upper arm, but Daniel seemed oblivious to ramming his own elbow hard into his arm.

“Oohh! Ah! It’s that thing!” Daniel shrieked. “When we you know, and she-”

“Yes!” Sam confirmed with a grin.

“Aaah, I see where this is going,” Cassie said slowly, smiling in understanding.

“Yep,” Sam nodded in confirmation.

“OH FOR CRYIN’ OUT LOUD, YOU LOT!!” he yelled, still soothing his bruised bicep. “Can someone please tell me what the ruddy hell is going on?”

“Nineteen-sixty-nine, Jack!” Daniel yelled exasperatedly, finally sitting still in his chair.

Nineteen-sixty-nine? The hippies they’d ridden with couldn’t possibly have had this device. Had it been in the warehouse where they’d found the gate and had to power it up with the truck engines? 

“I got nothing,” he shrugged.

“Jack, this is the device that Cassandra used to send us back to our correct time frame!” Sam explained.

And suddenly he recalled the old lady who Sam had hugged and claimed was Cassandra, who’d sent them back to their SGC after they’d apparently travelled forward in time too much. Or something. He couldn’t particularly say that he remembered the elderly woman using any device- it was so long ago after all- but of course he would trust Sam to remember a detail that pertained to technology.

“Ah,” was all he could say. Honestly, he was expecting something more exciting. And of course he always hoped any tech they found would turn out to be a big honking space gun. Or at least, in this case, maybe the remote control for one.

Upon seeing his lackluster reaction, Sam launched into a headlong explanation of the significance of the device that old Cassie had apparently used, and how if they had never found it, they would have been stuck in the future, and the entire timeline would have been changed permanently. “But we’re here now,” he’d interjected, but Sam had looked at him with a sympathetic look, telling him to think more ‘relativistically,’ not that that had ever made any sense to him. Jack’s head had started to hurt more once Zelenka had joined the meeting, the two scientists animatedly discussing the possibilities of whether the device itself had the ability to initiate a time inversion, or something, similar to the time device on the time-travelling Jumper, or not. The wave of technobabble made his brain zone out, and he started imagining giving Cassie a tour of the city and seeing her excited face. He couldn’t wait to catch up with her on her studies, and learn about the man she’d apparently recently moved in with, according to the last email she’d sent him. 

His brain rejoined the conversation as Zelenka announced his agreement to head a new project, to be unofficially designated ‘Project Flare One’. 

“It will be easy enough to build and set up a stationary satellite near the Sun to generate a solar flare on the side where the Sun's rotational differential will send SG-1 back in time,” he said in his thick, Czech accent.

The device wasn’t a time thingy, then, he concluded.

“And we have the exact date and time to send us back to, which we can get from the logs at the SGC,” Sam added.

“That’s good, but unfortunately we also require the precise date and time of departure from the future to calculate the necessary intensity and size of the coronal mass ejection to be created,” Zelenka said dejectedly.

“December Twelfth, 03:01 a.m., 2061, ” Sam supplied confidently. All heads in the room immediately turned to her in surprise.

“Sam, how can you possibly know that?” Daniel asked.

“This sounds crazy, and I don’t know how, but when I turned on the device in the infirmary, I just knew that was the exact date and time I’d last seen it.”

“Interesting,” remarked Zelenka, writing down a memo. “Then I shall contact the SGC to get the time of arrival, and immediately begin the calculations for the necessary flare.”

“Thank you Radek,” Sam said, and he left.

“Can I try it?” Cassie asked, pointing at the device. “I’m meant to use it, right?”

Sam looked hesitant, but then conceded, “Well, we will eventually need to test it. I don’t think it poses any danger. Just try not to access the city’s power systems, okay?” she warned.

“Urm, I’ll try?” Cassie said, hesitantly. “So, what do I do?”

“Last time, I just picked it up and it fixed itself to my hand.”

And they all watched, Jack feeling most concerned, as Cassie picked up the device from the case and put it on the back of her hand. Jack’s heart hammered, but to his relief, nothing happened. 

“Interesting,” Sam remarked. “Try pushing the oval button on the top?” And the young woman did, but again, nothing happened.

“Can I try?” asked Daniel, unable to hide his eagerness at trying the device himself. “I had the ATA gene therapy, and of course I can read and speak Ancient, so I should be able to work it and find out what it does, exactly.”

“Definitely, please try it, Daniel,” Sam said, and Jack watched as Cassie handed the device gingerly to Daniel, who took it keenly, but again nothing happened. Daniel’s expression was one of gross disappointment.

“Well, that sucks,” he said, mutedly, repeatedly pushing at the button to no avail.

“Strange, I would have expected Daniel to be able to use it. Cassie doesn’t have the gene, as far as we know, but Daniel has it now...” Sam trailed off, musingly.

“Well, we may as well all have a go. What have I got to lose, ey?” Jack said. It’s not like he'd had anything else to contribute to the meeting. “Hand it over then, Dannyboy,” and he snatched it from Daniel’s hands. Then, to everyone’s surprise, as soon as the device came into contact with his palm it immediately sprang to life, sprouting bands and snapping around his wrist.

What he saw next blew his mind. He could see the city, the entire base. He could access its systems. Read real-time measurements and data.

“Woah!” he shouted unconsciously. It reminded him of the time he'd been connected with Thor’s ship the second time he’d gone Ancient. And speaking of…

“Jack, can you stop that?” Daniel asked with an irritated tone as the lights in the room started to turn on and off repeatedly. No doubt Daniel was recalling that time on Thor’s ship, too.

“Jack, do you know what you’re doing?” he heard Sam ask, sounding concerned. 

“Yup,” he answered simply. Funny how he’d always had a knack for Ancient technology. And this device was no different. It was like it felt what he wanted it to do. Like Sam had described, he wasn’t sure if he was thinking in Ancient or in English, or if he was reading the Ancient, but it didn’t seem to matter. 

“Are you in control of it?” Sam asked again.

“Yup,” he replied again. Seeing, or perhaps, creating an interface with his mind, he saw, or read, the different categories displayed- Gate control, life signs, navigation; a myriad of options was streaming into his mind. “This is so cool, it’s like an Apple Watch.”

“An Apple Watch?”

“Yeah, like it has apps that I can access. Or rather, I think my brain is making it look like an Apple Watch so I can use it. Oh wait, there’s an ‘About’ section here.”

“Seriously?” he heard her say incredulously.

“What does it say?” Daniel asked.

“Let me see if I can translate this right,” he said smugly. He could just imagine Daniel feeling irritated that he was stealing his role.

“Some dude called “Jah-noos” made it.”

“Janus,” Daniel corrected.

“Whatever,” Jack dismissed. “And he was experimenting with making mind-controlled technology by putting a metal called “Purpurametallum” in his blood.”

“Purple metal? That must be their name for Naquadah,” Daniel supplied.

“That’s interesting,” said Sam. “The Pegasus galaxy never had much natural Naquadah. I wonder if he did his research in the Milky Way? And I wonder if the Goa’uld ever found a similar device or technology and got the same idea?”

“That also explains why only you and Jack can use it,” Daniel said.

“So if I get the ATA gene therapy, I should be able to use it, too!” Cassie said excitedly.

“Anyway,” Jack interrupted, he’d just found an interesting function and wanted to test it out right away. “Sam, give me your hand.”

She hesitantly placed her hand in his, and as she did so, he accessed the ‘Stella App’ as he'd named it, and shared the star chart of the galaxy with her.

“Can you see it?”

“Wow! Yes, Jack, wow! I see our galaxy! All the stars! How are you doing this?”

“Mind sharing, I guess. It only works if you have naquadah, though. Anyway, remember this one?” and at his mind’s instruction, they zoomed in on a particular planet they’d visited in their first year on SG-1. “Praclarush Taonas. Used to be a great city,” and he accessed the archive to show them both a video of a stunning cityscape, a pale orange sky glimmering through the shield making the city appear warm and beautiful.”

“Jack, do you remember going to this planet?”

“Yeah, it was a little different to how it used to be?”

“That’s right, the Sun had become a Red Giant. The surface of the planet had become inhospitable.” 

“Yeah, it’s strange, but with this device on, I can remember a lot of what happened when I had my head sucked the second time. I remember we had to wear hazmat suits to go down to the surface and pick up the ZPM.”

“Actually, Jack, sorry,” and he was surprised to hear that Sam’s voice suddenly sounded a little ragged. “Can you turn it off? It’s making my head hurt,” and he immediately let go of her hand and shut the device off. It came away from his hand and he promptly placed it back in the case.

“Are you okay Sam?” Shit, what if he’d fried her brain? He chastised himself for becoming so caught up in the abilities of the device, and in the excitement of being able to share it with Sam through the naquadah mind-link he’d set up, that he hadn’t stopped to think about her safety enough.

“I’m okay now, don’t worry. I guess my brain isn’t as advanced as yours, Jack,” she chuckled.

“Hey, stop the press everyone! That’s something you don’t hear every day!” He was relieved at her smile. She seemed fine enough.

“Well Jack, you did say the Asgard were surprised your brain could handle the Ancient database,” Daniel said.

“Until it almost killed me, twice.”

“Yes, but you have always had a natural way with these things, Jack. Or maybe because you’ve had the Ancient database in your head before, it means you can handle this device too?”

“Either way, Sam, you’d better get checked out at the infirmary again,” and she gave a wan smile, probably knowing he was prepared to drag her there if she resisted, “and I better go check up on the kids.”

—

It was now late evening, though the sun continued to shine unimpeded on the lunar surface, when Sam walked into the bright commissary to find Daniel, Jack and Cassie trying to convince a resistant Jacob to finish his meal.

“Mummy!” he shrieked, running to her, probably relieved at an excuse to avoid his vegetables. 

“You okay?” Jack asked her as he crossed the room to her, giving her a worried look. “I didn’t fry your brain, did I?”

She appreciated the concern in his eyes. She loved how he never ceased to worry and care for her. “I’m totally fine don’t worry,” she said, doing her best to convey as much reassurance as she could in the tone of her voice. It worked, as he then moved to pick up their vegetable-fighting son, and carry him back to the table. 

“Come on Jake, just one broccoli, you can do it!” And she followed them to the table.

“I’ve got a good idea,” said Cassie, who was sat at the table with an empty plate in front of her. Sam guessed they’d all long-finished their dinner, as only Jake’s plate had food left on it, as usual. “Jake, if you eat your broccoli like Daddy says, I might have a present for you!”

“Present!!” Jake shouted, and promptly shoved several green florets into his mouth, grimacing as he chewed the offending food, before swallowing with a dramatic gulp. “I finished!” he said proudly, to claps and cheers from the surrounding adults.

“Thank you Auntie Cassie!” cheered Sam. “You’ll have to stop by Atlantis more often!”

And Sam watched as she revealed a plastic bag from under the dinner table that she’d presumably been hiding.

“They were only last-minute purchases because I didn’t have much time to plan and buy anything special. Jack’s message had, after all, made it sound so _urgent_ ,” and she said emphatically, glaring exasperatedly at Jack.

“What?” 

“Jack, you made it sound like the world was going to end if I didn’t get here fast! But actually, it turns out we have decades to implement this plan!”

“Well, I was tired of Sam winding me up,” he answered, pouting.

“Sorry for that Cass,” Sam said.

“No, no, it's fine. I'm so glad I finally got to come to Atlantis! Anyway, Grace, it’s not much, but this is for you,” and she retrieved what appeared to be the latest issue of the National Geographic from the bag, which Grace accepted excitedly, immediately opening and rummaging through the pages, poring through images of the world she probably barely remembered living on. 

“I’ll want that when you’re done,” Jack said, giving her a wink, and Sam recalled with a twinge of nostalgia that Jack had once traded his entire collection of the magazine for information that had eventually helped save her life. 

“And Jake, good job with your veggies, this is for you!” Cassie continued with the gift-giving, and she revealed a bumper pack of party bubbles. 

“What’s this?” he asked, and Grace, immediately putting down her magazine, helped open the pack, taking out a large blue bottle and untwisting the cap with strength.

“They’re bubbles!” she told him, and Sam felt a feeling of guilt creep over her as she watched her daughter show her little brother how to use them. The scene reminded her that her children were growing up missing out on that sense of normalcy. They didn't get to watch normal kids tv shows on a Sunday morning. They didn't go to school, or join local play groups. They didn’t go grocery shopping and beg for candy in the snack aisle. They didn't even have a playground, though ask Grace and she might say that Radek's office was one, she thought with a chuckle. On the other hand, though, the child in her felt that her kids were so lucky to be the first ever human children to be growing up on the moon. Plus Cass had turned out just fine even though she’d spent her entire pre-teen life growing up on Hanka, she reassured herself. Not to mention, if Earth ever came under attack again, their secret base hidden and shielded on the dark side of the moon was probably the safest place in the solar system for them to be.

Her eyes refocused on the scene before her. Grace, still wearing the white dress from earlier, was now happily blowing bubbles, giggling as her little brother ran around clapping and stomping on them. Then, reaching out to hand the bubble blower to her, her daughter asked innocently, “Mummy, play with us?”

A vivid memory suddenly echoed in her mind. _"Play with me."_ It had been the exact same girl, wearing this exact same dress, with the exact same bottle of bubbles in her hand, who had said those words to her long ago on a ship. 'Hoooooly Hannah. No way!'


	8. Your Journey Is Just Beginning

**2015 (continued)**

_Hoooooly Hannah. No way._

The group were still gathered around the table in the now emptying commissary. Grace was nose-deep in her National Geographic magazine, and little Jake had since fallen fast asleep in his mother’s arms; the excitement of his first encounter with bubble mix having seemingly worn him out.

Sam had just finished recounting the realization that she had indeed seen her future daughter on The Prometheus, and her friends were now staring at her as though she’d completely lost her mind.

“Well, urm, that’s quite a story, Sam,” Cassie remarked, side-eyeing Daniel to check his reaction.

“Sam, are you sure you ever properly recovered from that concussion?” Daniel teased.

“Very funny, Daniel.”

“Yeah, I’d have been worried the Ancient iWatch had messed up your head if you hadn’t told me about that premonition before,” Jack added, for which Sam grateful that at least someone seemed to believe her.

“It wasn’t really a premonition, Jack. And what, Ancient iWatch? That’s a terrible name for the device!” she said.

“Well, The Prometheus was a terrible name for the ship! Greek tragedy, people! I swear that ship never had a mission that actually went well.”

“Yeah, it might have fared better if they had called it The Enterprise after all,” she conceded, earning a huge grin from her husband, who mouthed, ‘thank you’. “But I’m not crazy, you know,” she directed at Cassie and Daniel. “I know what I saw.”

“At least Grace doesn’t look as ugly as that drawing you did of her, thank God,” he jibed, looking over at his daughter, now doing the puzzles in the back page.

“Hey! Will you stop teasing me about my drawing skills? They’re not important right now!” to which Cassie and Daniel exchanged confused looks, prompting Sam to add, “Can we get back to the point here?”

“Which is that you saw Grace, looking and doing exactly what she was doing today, on a ship when you were going to die?” Cassie asked.

“Yes, and seeing her playing with those bubbles gave me the idea to make a subspace bubble that saved the ship and the crew.”

“So are you saying the device-“ Daniel began.

“Ancient iWatch-“ Jack corrected.

“So you're saying the _device_ ,” Daniel reiterated emphatically, ignoring his friend’s suggestion, “is going to send Grace back in time?”

“No, of course not! I don’t think that’s even possible, nor would I risk any situation that might send a seven year old back in time!” Sam exclaimed. There was absolutely no way she was sending Grace back in time, even if it ended up saving the whole galaxy.

“Well I’m glad to hear that," said Jack. "But how is it possible that you saw that exact scene of our daughter playing with bubbles, what- more than ten years ago?”

“This timing can’t be a coincidence. I think it’s a message for me, like an Easter egg. A trail laid for me to piece together and see the link to this moment so I could then go ahead and set up the events that lead to closing the loop.”

“What loop?” he asked, starting to rub his forehead, which made Sam smile. She always was amused by the headaches Jack liked to feign when the science talk started.

“The loop in the time paradox,” she explained. "SG-1 gets sent to the future, where Cassie must have implanted a memory, or vision I guess, of Grace with Jake’s bubbles, in the younger me. That later triggers, leading to saving my life 5 years after that, which leads to Grace and Jake being born later after that, for whom she buys bubbles.”

“Wait, wasn’t it already a paradox that the young General Hammond ended up with the note that his older self had written, that ended up saving us in the first place?” asked Daniel.

“Yes, and that became a closed loop right at the moment he gave me the note in 1998.”

“Wait,” interjected Jack, “so you’re saying we’re dealing with a paradox within a paradox?!” 

“Within another paradox, yes,” and she tried to suppress a snicker at the confusion she was causing in her husband.

“Another!?” Jack cried exasperatedly, plunking his head on the table with an audible ‘thunk’.

“First, General Hammond set up events that led Lieutenant Hammond to help us in 1969. Then right now, we are setting up for future Cassie to go on to send us back to our time, which goes on to save our world multiple times because we were there to save it. And now at the same time Cassie will also implant the idea that saves my life five years after that.”

“I still don’t get why this matters now?” asked Jack. “We’re here, now, safe,” he said, waving his arms around the empty commissary emphatically.

“Why does it matter? It absolutely matters, more than anything, Jack, because it hasn’t happened yet!”

“Of course it has, I remember old lady Cassie, and we got back.”

“But I don’t remember saving you,” interjected Cassie herself.

“Exactly, and the events that lead to her having either the knowledge or ability to save us haven’t been set in motion yet. We’re not saved yet at all.”

“So, how do the bubbles I bought come into this, again?” Cassie asked, playing absently with the bubble’s plastic packaging, making a crumpling sound that made Jacob stir briefly, before resettling to sleep in Sam’s arms.

“That’s what made me realise that this is where I got the idea back on the ship, which saved my life and the crew of the Prometheus ten tears ago.”

“But no one made me buy them in the store today,” she said, confused. “Wow, and, here’s a scary thought. Actually, I spent a little while deciding between the bubbles for Jacob or a pack of crayons, before remembering I had to hurry back home to make the transport to beam to the Hammond to come here.” 

“See Sam, my impatience and telling Cass to get here fast might have saved your life.”

“Actually, no," Sam contradicted, making Jack's boyish grin drop, "if you’d chosen the alternative- the crayons- the loop would have remained unfulfilled and an alternate timeline would have been created, one where I died.”

“We're on to _alternative timelines_ now!?" came Jack’s exasperated voice, and another thunk could be heard, indicating that Jack was banging his head against the table again.

“Yes, an alternate timeline where I wouldn’t have been alive to discover the device here that saved all of the original SG-1 in the first place in 1999,” Sam supplied. “Or rather, 2061,” she amended, “stranding an alternate SG-1 in the far future.”

“Please, please just stop there, PLEASE!” Jack implored, clenching her arm firmly, his face reddened from the effort of trying to keep up with the jargon.

“I’m almost sorry I asked in the first place,” Daniel muttered, removing his glasses and rubbing his eyebrows therapeutically.

“ _Almost_?” said Jack incredulously.

“Yeah, I think we need to move on before Jack gets a brain aneurysm,” interjected an amused Cassie, earning a loud “Oy!” from Jack. “How exactly do I send you guys back in time with the Ancient iWatch?” 

“The _device_ ,” Sam started, like Daniel, choosing to ignore Jack’s terminology, “acts as a remote control. I was able to dial the gate, which you’ll need to do to send us back. And we can build the solar flare generator that we’ll put into orbit around the Sun using mainly Ancient technology, so that you'll be able to control it with the device, too. And we can replicate The Destiny’s shield and solar power-generation technology so it can stay safely and self-power in the Sun's orbit until the right time.”

“Cool,” she answered, despite not knowing what The Destiny was. “And how do you know the date that I save you guys on?” asked Cassandra.

“Like I said, when the device turned on, I just knew,” she said thoughtfully. And replaying the scene of meeting old Cassie again in her mind, she suddenly pieced together what had happened and clapped, making Jake jerk in her arms. “I know! You hugged me when we were in the future! I already had Naquadah in my blood then, so I think you must have done that mind-share thing on me that Jack did on me earlier today! You must have planted the idea of Grace and the date, and when those memories should trigger.”

“How can I possibly do all that?” she asked, looking rather panic-stricken at the responsibility of needing to save her Aunt Sam’s life twice over.

“I think I can set it up to make it do that,” Jack said, with a sly look of confidence playing on his lined face. “All you’ll have to do is turn it on at the right time, Cass. We can practice first.”

“You’ll have to teach her how relatively soon, Jack, because we’ll be long dead by the time we come through the gate at the SGC in 2061…” Sam said.

“Well that’s a morbid thought,” said Daniel darkly.

“Yeah. Anyway, say I can make the device do that-“

“You have to, Jack! Our lives depend on it!” interrupted Sam.

“Okay, so _when_ I do this, and set it ready to fiddle with your mind, how about I add in some future superbowl scores?” he said with a cheeky grin.

The thunderous look she made sure to send him was enough to quash that idea in an instant.

——-

**2061**

“As much as I would love to spend more time with you, the timing must be precise. You’ll have to go,” she said, her heart aching heavily with regret.

“Already? But there’s so much-” 

“You, of all people, know that I can’t,” she interjected, cutting her off. There was so much she wanted to tell them, there was so much pain to come that could be avoided with forewarning; they could even save her the pain of losing her Mom before her natural time. But of course, she saw Sam nod in full understanding. She was, after all, the very person who had beseeched her long ago the potential repercussions of doing anything to change the timeline. 

Pressing her finger to the device, she activated the gate to dial an address that would take the wormhole directly through the path of the artificial solar flare that Flare One had begun to generate at her command.

“I will say this, your journey is just beginning.” It really was. Thanks to them, the human race would advance to a point of having interstellar capability. They will go on to fight and win several galactic wars. They would each face death several times, but the children they would have, their grandchildren; there was so much happiness and joy to come in the future of the four she held so dear.

And as she watched the young Sam stow away the GDO into her pack, she realised with a panic that she hadn’t given Sam the current date and time yet! Needing direct contact to re-initiate the mind link, she reached out her hand- which Sam to her relief, took- and thought, _Twenty-sixty-one, December Twelfth, 3:01:00_ , making sure to bury the message in Sam’s unconscious mind, to be recalled the next time she came into contact with the AiW.

Cassandra watched as Sam broke their brief contact, and the four family members she hadn't seen for decades and had missed so, so much, marched up the ramp unceremoniously and out of her life. The event horizon swallowed them one by one, and as the gate shut itself down, the room fell into darkness, and she was hit by a huge wave of sorrow at the thought that she’d never get to see them ever again. She’d wanted to savour the hug with Sam- she’d missed her smell, and the feel of her presence so much more than she’d realised- but focusing on her job and activating the device to implant the memory of little Grace playing so long ago had taken all her focus. It had always softened the blow each time one of the four had passed on, to know that she would be reunited with them here, in the future. But now that fleeting opportunity was suddenly over, and they were out of her life for good. She suddenly felt a similar despair and grief to losing her Mom when she had been so young, and at losing her entire village and Hankan family. She felt like the vulnerable thirteen-year old that they would now be returning to. They were gone. Forever, and she felt so empty.

Her grief and melancholy was cut short, however, by the two adult figures who appeared from thin air, each clutching a Sodan cloaking device on their wrist.

“Oh my God, Jake, did you see what Mom and Dad were wearing!?” giggled the lady wearing a similar long white gown to her own. “People wore such wacko things a hundred years ago!”

“Alright you two, cut it out, don’t you feel sad that you’ll never see them again?”

“I guess, but seriously though Cass,” the elder gentleman in a blue shirt, a single silver star adorning his shoulder rank insignia, “how did you not burst out laughing at Teal’c’s hair? I had to stand in the far corner so they couldn’t hear me laugh.”

“You nearly gave us away, idiot,” said his sister, punching his arm, before reaching over the the wall to switch on the overhead light, brightening the long-disused Gate Room.

“Sorry for that, but thanks for getting us the Sodan cloaks, Grace.”

“Well, I am Head of Area 54, after all. It was easy enough,” she grinned, and started to pull at the white sheets covering the equipment in the Gate Room that Sam had long ago instructed them to cover, to avoid showing them anything of the technology of the future. “Shame we only had a couple of minutes to see them, though.”

“Yes,” Cassandra replied. “We didn’t know what time they would come through, and I had to stick to the events that Sam had seen, so I had to be sure to send them through at exactly 3:01.”

“Even though technically the satellite could be initiated at any time. I mean, technically they could have stayed for a whole year if they’d wanted,” Grace remarked sadly.

“I know, but your Mom warned us about changing even the slightest detail that they remembered. It had to play out just as they saw it before.”

“Self-fulfilling prophecy, and all that?” Jacob asked.

“Exactly. Makes you think weird thoughts about free will,” Grace commented.

“Yeah.” Cassandra 

“So what now?” Grace asked.

“Well, I for one need to contact the President and tell him that Project Flare One was a success,” said Jake.

“Oh come on, you can do that later. The night’s still young! Anyone up for a game of poker?”

“The night may be young, but I'm certainly not anymore," Cassandra couldn't help moan. She couldn't believe the pair in their late fifties were behaving so childish after seeing their long-passed parents. They had certainly inherited too much of Jack, she thought. At least they were taking it better than she was. "I’m going back to bed.”

“Oh come on Aunt Cass, and Jake, too! Just one game?”

“Fine,” they both moaned in unison, and Grace fished out the pack of cards from her dress pocket, laying them out on a white sheet on the floor in the corner the old Gate Room. The trio's knees groaned in protest as they sat down, playing several more rounds than Cassandra had planned, laughing together over past times- both good and bad- shared under Cheyenne Mountain, now commanded by a certain Brigadier General Carter-O’Neill, who had recently taken up the quick and easy assignment on his way to retiring."

**The End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's over! This has been such a blast! The Fictober prompts really spoke to me, the invention of this entire story is owed to them.
> 
> The ending’s a bit silly, I know, but you may or may not have noticed that the ending is intended to be an homage to first scene of The Children of the Gods part 1, where the airmen are playing poker in the Gate Room, and also to Hammond's line "When I took over this command, the Stargate was inactive. This was supposed to be a quick and easy assignment on my way to retiring." in Chain of Command.
> 
> Please leave your feedback and comments, if you're nice maybe the muse will come back and force me to write more stories! :D


End file.
